What do you think happens when you make a phone call? What do you think happens when you go on the internet?
Amazing how even DU can place ads on the page that coincide with what you may have shown interest in...everything from dental insurance to New Cars.
How do you think courts get phone records in a criminal, or even civil trial? They go to the people who collect that data, and order it be handed over.
The fact is, whether we like it or not, data on what we do on the internet, who we call on our cellphones and landlines, where we go in our car equipped with GPS, where we use our Credit Cards and what we buy, etc, etc, etc...is being collected all over the place.
The innocuous phone data that A COLLECTION OF FEDERAL JUDGES authorized to be collected, that CONGRESS WAS FULLY BRIEFED ON, and that has been collected FOR OVER 12 YEARS is completely and entirely useless, unless and until there is a valid and compelling reason to retrieve and review it.
How this program works is that, suppose there is a terrorist attack, or we catch a bunch of folks that were planning an attack, say or "your town", or they had plans to bring down a city block where your family lived, or your children went to school. As part of that "criminal investigation" or "arrest", the FBI seizes these folks cellphones. They then go before a Federal Judge and request that the NSA database be searched for numbers called by that phone number. This database would provide the FBI with vital information that could prove vital to our national security.
I happen to think that's a good thing.
Folks who try to make this program more than it is, or think that the "gubmint" is listening to your phone calls, or "spying" on you, are - just - plain - WRONG!
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