[ExI] The NSA's new data center

[Dave Sill]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 10:23 AM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2012/3/22 Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com>
>
>> Wow, that is disturbing. The idea of a government agency having access to
>> that much private communication between its citizens is not good.
>>
>
> Not that non-citizens would be immune... :-)
>

No, but the US Constitution doesn't preclude spying on international
communications.

Personally, I have two answers:
> - try to make things as difficult as possible to snoopers (make use of
> Freenet, encrypt your email, anonimise yourself, etc, whenever possible,
> even for trivial stuff)

- accept (and realise) that privacy has been a transient phenomenon in
> human societies, for citizens *and* governments alike, and behave
> accordingly.


As I said, my primary concern is that this information could be used by
those who have it to ensure that their power isn't diminished by those who,
at least theoretically, have the power to do so. I don't have anything to
hide, but I'm *sure* there are people in Washington who *do*, and I'm also
sure they're not all as careful as they should be. J. Edgar Hoover
supposedly had secret files containing embarrassing information about his
enemies. Imagine what he could have done with access to everyone's mail and
telephone calls.

-Dave
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