'I Have Been to the Darkest Corners of Government, and What They Fear Is Light'

[JDPriestly]

60. The Social Security Administration does not compile and analyze your data with huge

computers intended to create a map of the connections between people in the US.

And when I put a password on a bank account or on my e-mail account, etc. I am expressing an expectation of privacy. The US government is supposed to respect that. When I have an expectation of privacy as to my personal data, the government should have no right to go in and take it without a warrant.

The third-party business record rule is outdated and no longer suffices to protect even a modicum of privacy. That was a rule made up by the Supreme Court to facilitate the investigation of crimes back when. I doubt that the current Supreme Court will over-rule it, but eventually that rule will be seriously modified. In this time of vast computer power, the business record rule permits the NSA and other government agencies to pretty much obliterate the Constitution's guarantees of a number of our basic rights. The business records rule may have worked well in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and even 1970s, but it permits too much invasive activity today. Far too much.

They can probably figure out how often you take a bath if they really want to. They could probably create a mathematical equation that would analyze your water bill and the cost of taking a bath, figure in all the other uses you might have for water and come up with a pretty reasonable estimate of the number of times you bathe per week. That's how invasive today's technology combined with a little math and a lot of business records could be. Under your view, that would all be perfectly legal. I find it to be a violation of our Constitution. Not that anyone cares how often you bathe, but . . . it is an illustration of just how invasive metadata could be in your life.