Do you really think the NSA has the manpower to sift through billions of keystrokes and metadata

[Atman]

80. So what is your point?

First red flag for the NSA...your name.

Now, if you're just surfing some cooking sites and chatting with your friends about plans for the weekend, it is highly unlikely that you will otherwise cause a blip on the radar screen. Sure, you get a couple points for your name, but most likely the algorithms won't pick you out of the "crowd" which needs to be analyzed further.

So then, what if you start texting and e-mailing people in the countries that we've deemed "unfriendly" toward the US? You get a few more points, another red flag. What if these texts and e-mails also coincided with phone calls in which you just happened to discuss certain nefarious activities against the United States? BINGO...then the big red flag goes off. You've hit several of the key indicators, and the computer flags you and your name shows up on Agent Mike's To Do list tomorrow morning.

Just to be clear, I'm not accepting it or supporting it. Just trying to clarify what is happening. The OP was correct to a limited degree...there simply aren't enough people to listen to or directly monitor everything we do or say every day. It's impossible. But there is computer processing power, and algorithms which search for patterns.

And yes, if they suspect you're a terrorist, you might want to question why they suspect this. If they look through "your stuff" and find nothing, you'll never know they looked through your stuff. They'll just close the file. Maybe put a red flag on it for future scrutiny, depending upon what you said to your uncle.

AGAIN, I am not in any way condoning this or apologizing for what the NSA is doing. I am just trying to put it into some context. The OP was way off the mark and woefully ignorant of the process. But then again, so are many of the other posters. No one is sitting at a desk watching your e-mails and recently visited URL's pass by on his screen. It simply isn't the way it works. It's still insidious, but it just doesn't work that way. You won't pop up on Agent Mike's screen until you order some ..... ... online, (I'm not stupid enough to type the actual words into a DU forum), or call an emergency meeting of ________________ (insert group name here).