Are you troubled by the news that the governments of the US and UK paid technology firms to design flaws into their products making surveillance easier?

Troubled, but far from surprised.

As for the Fourth Amendment, the Patriot act nullified that over a decade ago. Seriously, those within 100 miles of a border (including the ocean) are exempt from it since then; that means that roughly ⅔ of US citizens have had few/no Fourth Amendment protections for years but just didn’t know it.

@jerv saved me the time of typing up a response.

It bugs the shit out of me. I was sure this was the case all along so some confirmation is nice.

I would like it to go to a vote. Let us know all the shit these dollars have protected us from. Put it all out and let us vote on if we want privacy (and saved cash) or security.

I know the outcome of this vote already but it would be nice to have a vote on it.

Add to that the fact that they have cracked most encryption methods used on the internet, chat, e-mail, online banking.

Only one solution

I’m not okay with it, but I too am not surprised. I remember reading articles about encryption and the Feds actively asking companies for a back door. I guess they got it.

I really don’t care what the government does. As long as my everyday life isn’t affected, I say more power to em.

@johnpowell Your elected representatives have voted on it. It is called the Patriot Act and it was overwhelmingly approved in 2001 and has been re-authorized by votes in Congress three times.

In a moment of panic and fear we gave our rights away.

Yes, I’m troubled. You have to ask yourself what the government is, why it does what it does and what it might evolve into if unchecked. Governments shouldn’t take an interest in our private lives. When they do they are on the road to becoming dictatorships.

Meh. Totally expected. I figure it is like your landlord having a master key.
I have trouble with letting others know there are master keys. Now they will look for it. OTOH, the people who are capable of looking already know the keys exist.

Are you upset that the products you bought from China, came preloaded with 3 types of virus/spyware: backdoor, keylogger, trojans? You even agreed to let them install it when you plugged in that cool electronic picture frame you got for $20.

I’d mind less if I could spy on the spies, but since they’re so paranoid about keeping their secrets secret, I can only presume that they’ve something to hide, and therefore should not be trusted. If I can’t trust them, then I don’t want them spying on me…

I hear about more crime and scandal within government than any t rings broken up or plots thwarted by tapping citizens.

And that’s just what I hear about. Surely there is more.

All that NSA money could be rebuilding crumbling education and infrastructure. It’s so repulsive what we’ve allowed our nation to become. Spying, military, and cops gone mad.

I’m sure my children and grandchildren will thank me for this.

BTW… THANK YOU EDWARD SNOWDEN for revealing this info.

You are a true hero. Not just for America, but for the world.

“Knowledge that GCHQ exploits these products and the scale of our capability would raise public awareness generating unwelcome publicity for us and our political masters.”

“Intelligence officials asked the Guardian, New York Times and ProPublica not to publish this article, saying that it might prompt foreign targets to switch to new forms of encryption or communications that would be harder to collect or read.”

”The three organisations removed some specific facts but decided to publish the story because of the value of a public debate about government actions that weaken the most powerful tools for protecting the privacy of internet users in the US and worldwide.”
_________

So they’re influencing journalism.

I’m extremely troubled by the indexing and recording of everything we do online. As far as companies specifically giving access when required, I don’t think that’s surprising. Companies aren’t given much a choice in some areas. It’s just like bars only serving to those over 21, it’s do it or don’t get in the business.

The overall scope of surveillance, and how few people actually understood what was authorized (include Senators who voted on the laws that made it possible) is a huge problem. I’d like to believe people will be held accountable, but right now I just want it to stop even if everyone gets a pass.

Ending these programs will be my #1 voting decision maker for federal offices until they are gone. They simply aren’t necessary and aren’t what citizens agreed to.

The constitution was actually a great document, but if we consider it a living document or merely a guideline, it loses it’s effect. There is a downside to limiting the power of the federal government and a downside to letting it grow unrestrained. It’s crunch time. We need to decide whether those principles defined in the constitution are worth fighting for or is it better to surrender those rights in lieu of safety (or whatever the powers decide is safety). Is it possible to lop the head off the Hydra we’ve created or should we just knuckle under? I vote for lopping off the heads and the patriot act is but one of them.

Nope.

@zenvelo :: I was thinking more of a public vote. A special election.

Really, KNOWITALL sums it up. They don’t really care since it doesn’t affect them since they do nothing wrong. I worry because the definition of wrong changing is a single vote away.

I’d like to add here that we all agree to terms of service every time we create an account online. Anyone ever read those terms of service?

@flip86 – unless the terms of service say your data can be accessed, searched, indexed, and stored indefinitely by the US government, at their discretion and without due process, this isn’t covered.

The terms of service don’t say that, because that would be illegal for a private company to grant those rights to any other entity and it would be illegal for the company to tell you they were allowing it in the case of the government.

They can’t even tell anyone how many requests they receive specifically and only occasionally can they tell you after the fact that your information was requested.

If the government finds something, they’ll pass it along to the correct agency who will then recreate a trail that would justify them finding it on their own so they don’t reveal the existence of whatever program was used.

And you’re paying for it. You’re welcome.

It is very troubling. But, we voted for these people. It’s our fault. All we can do is fire those who have betrayed us and try again. That is our duty.