PRISM Isn’t Data Mining and Other Falsehoods in the N.S.A. “Scandal”

[thucythucy]

82. You're right, the metadata

is for domestic calls as well as foreign. But this is different from PRISM, which deals only with foreign numbers. My understanding is that the standards applied to PRISM surveillance are less stringent that those applied to domestic FISA warrants. The initial reports made it seem as though the PRISM standards for tapping and recording actual conversations were being applied to the Verizon metadata warrant, which isn't the case. Hence all the rage about "listening to millions of phone lines" or whatever.

"Those agreements come with privacy policies..." And I suspect that, if you look at the fine print of any agreement you sign with any telecom company, you will find a clause that says something to the effect that "the provider is obligated to respond to warrants issued by federal and state courts...." No contract you sign with anyone will ever supersede a duly issued court ordered warrant, and, like it or not, the warrant for the Verizon metadata falls under that category.

And any "expectation of privacy" took a big hit with the creation of the internet. The fact is that every post you make (including those on DU), every web site you visit, is logged somewhere: at some corporate data base or other, and this information is sold, shared, passed along to a variety of entities, generally for commercial reasons. I don't like it, but that's the way it is. For the most part, Americans seem to have surrendered some of their right to privacy for the convenience of shopping on line, or doing internet searches as opposed to physically going to a library or using the old Yellow Pages. Every purchase you make on line, every web search you do is part of somebody's record. Indeed, every time you use a credit card, take money out of an account using an ATM, or use an Easy-pass card to get on or off a highway, your information is logged. It's naive to think otherwise. I've heard very little in all this discussion about corporate use of our data, which to me is perhaps as large a problem as government intrusion. It certainly is more ubiquitous, and considerably less regulated.

One other miscellaneous item. According to a news report I heard yesterday on one of the national news broadcasts, out of all the warrants issued under FISA these past years, only 300 phone numbers have actually been further examined by the NSA.

As for the feds using metadata, and "fishing" -- I generally agree. But while people have "demanded the snooping doesn't...infringe on our rights" people have also demanded that the administration do everything legally possible to prevent more terrorist attacks in the USA. How we balance those two demands is the crux of the issue.

Personally, as I've said before, I'd like to see the Patriot Act repealed, and FISA substantially amended to provide much greater accountability and transparency. The Patriot Act in particular was enacted during the wave of hysteria that followed 9-11, and the discussion we're having now should have happened then. Perhaps another Church Committee style investigation would do the job, but I don't see how, at this point, we're going to get from here to there.