Maybe it's because I've held a Top Secret security clearance once...

[MADem]

157. Let's send the plans of our latest military aircraft to the Chinese, too, shall we?

We elect representatives who serve on committees to vet this stuff for us, so that we, each and every one of us, do not have obtain a TS/SCI clearance to go take a briefing on the Hill in a SCIF so that no one can hear what is being said. There is an implied contract between those we elect to see to these matters of national security, and those of us who vote for these people to make these decisions of the highest order.

Our elected servants do need to go to the damn briefings though, and make informed votes.

The database is not "permanent." I'd invite you to read into the program, it provides for dumping "non-actionable" data. The database that (insert name of your phone company) has on you is far more "permanent" than anything NSA has.

And if they are "violations of the Constitution" the courts -- not folks on a message board--will be the ones to make that determination. I do think this needs to be run up the judicial flagpole, and a determination made once and for all.

We don't tote muskets any more, and we don't have a need for buggy whips to propel our steeds forward as we tool around town. Times have changed, and the concept of privacy--like it or not--has changed with it.

People willingly vomit all their personal details to a little shit name Zuckerberg, who "aggregates the data," without batting an eye. They post their images, their locations, where they went on vacation, who their friends are, who their families are, what they "like" in terms of entertainment, politics, you name it. Pinterest, LinkedIn, Ancestry.com, Spotify, Netflix...you access it, you're adding to your own database. Same deal with those supermarket loyalty cards--what don't they know about what we eat or drink, and what we wipe our asses with, etc? We give over enthusiastically to our email providers, cable providers, cell phone providers, banks, ATM/debit/credit cards, and we smile for the camera as we pass dozens of security cameras at a crack--when we go to any store, any gas station, pass by any crowded street. Every time we go to the doctor, our medical details are put into one of those "clouds" so that if we travel on holiday to the opposite coast and get hit by a bus, the ER doctor can access a database and learn that we're on "X" medication, even if we're comatose.

Hell, Amazon knows everything I've bought since their site went live. A LOT of stuff, too. I took a stroll down memory lane awhile back, and their database goes back to the very first book I bought from those guys.

No one cries about their "rights" in these instances, and these corporate entities do not have any oversight or rules about how long they can keep your details. All of a sudden, though, people are invoking a quaint idea of what constitutes privacy--and that said, I do agree that it is a subject the courts need to discuss. This particular judicial conversation should have happened twenty five or more years ago--but no one gave a shit back then. Funny how that works.

I think there is a generational divide, too--young people have a different attitude towards collection of data and what constitutes privacy. They expect to be tracked if they do certain things, they LIKE to be able to log in to so-and-so's Xbox and bring up their own avatar and history, and they have less of an uneasy feeling about the whole notion of living in a real life AND virtual community where there's much more sharing of personal data than is comfortable for some people who are slightly older.

Let's send it to the courts. Perhaps the judges will read the documents, since the legislators--some of them, anyway--are playing dumb about stuff THEY voted on. That said.... I would not be surprised if the courts rule in a way that will disappoint many people who do believe their "right to privacy" is being violated. I think we are on the cusp of a very big change in how we conduct ourselves. Soon, in my lifetime, I think (and I am closer to the end than the beginning), passwords will be a thing of the past, and biometrics will rule the day--and then, ardent privacy advocates will REALLY have something to cry about, I suspect.