This is why ALL liberals *should* oppose dragnet surveillance

[BlueStreak]

54. That is probably not in the Data Base --- yet

The thing about these data base projects is that they seem to be unstoppable. people can't stand to see big piles of loose data that could be pulled into the giant database.

None of this is purpose-driven. If it were, maybe there wouldn't be such objections. A purpose-driven process would go like "OK, we know there are some terrorists out there. We have observed they tend to do X Y and Z. SO we will collect data on X Y and Z for the purposes of identifying people who a re likely to be real terror threats to Americans".

That isn't what is happening. What is happening is that technology allows for really cheap storage of data of all kinds, so they are just gathering up everything in sight with no particular reason why it is necessary and no particular plan how to use it. The people building the database aren't even involved in national security in all likelihood. They are just technical geek, not much different from those at Microsoft, Oracle, Google, or any other large database user.

It grows and it grows and it grows. Then one day somebody operating behind the shroud of secrecy gets into the database and does some really horrible things with it.

Once the database is in place, you don't need any warrants to USE the data. The warrants are all about COLLECTING the data.

Another technology not mentioned is all the toll readers that are in place nationwide. They can and do read license plates as you pass through each toll station. That is, after all, how they assess fines for those who drive through without a transponder. That is all data that could co into the database. Putting that together with the phone data, they could say exactly when your car was at the O'Hare toll station and whose cell phones were in the car at that moment. Let's say there was an Occupy rally near that stop, if the database indicated one of those cell phones belonged to an active opinion leader in the Occupy movement, the database could alert law enforcement to be on the lookout for your vehicle. Perhaps they would pull you over for a "routine" traffic stop, whereupon they could use their newly granted right to collect your DNA and put that into the database.

All of this is designed to have a chilling effect on those who might be "enemies of the state."

Joseph McCarthy would be pleased.