Can someone tell me the reason for all the trashing of Glen Greenwald?

[GiaGiovanni]

145. You and I will vehemently disagree here.

"Tangible benefits" is never an excuse to demolish someone's normal, day to day expectation of privacy.

When we are on the phone, we assume who we are calling is a private matter, unless (as some do) we shout into our cell phones in line at Starbucks. I don't think people realized that the knowledge of what number they were calling (and whom) implied zero expectation of privacy. Since courts typically had to obtain a warrant (with probable cause) to get phone records, we did have some expectation of privacy unless a cop or prosecutor had reason to believe we had committed a crime. NSA has just blown that popular understanding out of the water.

One more thing: with the new technologies, including street lights with microphones, cameras & computers (see 1:20) and even our appliances, the assumption of corporations and government is that we have NO expectation of privacy, even in our own homes. That's not about national security and one cannot talk about the "tangible" benefits of a corporation or government knowing whether we watch HBO in the kitchen or the bedroom.

Somewhere along the line, we need to develop new laws to preserve the expectation of privacy--in our homes, our front lawns, on the phone--despite the technology.