Either the mass surveillance will end or people will begin to leave their electronic devices at home or meet in places where the surveillance cannot reach them.
Privacy is a basic human right. That has not been recognized in the past because privacy was a given. The borders between private and public spaces were evident. We all knew where they were. But today, our government is disregarding those borders. Our government is intruding into our private space. That is unacceptable to me.
I sewed the curtains on my windows. The space within my curtains is private. My phone, my computer, my television and my security equipment, all the electronic equipment in my house is behind my curtains. No one should intrude without my permission. The government should not intrude without my permission.
The phone company, my computer internet provider, all have the records of my phone and internet activity. They are entitled to it only because they bill me for their service to me. I have not given them permission to analyze my bills, to correlate the numbers I call with the numbers called by those who call me. That information is as personal to me as the space behind the curtains and windowshades and doors of my house.
I think that most Americans feel as I do. Even those who think that the NSA can do no wrong. They accept these spying programs only because they have not realized yet that the NSA is not just spying on the bad guys but on them, on the ordinary good Americans who go about their business, who have curtains on their windows, who believe that what they do behind those curtains is their own business and not the NSAs. People who believe that what they do in their churches, their synagogues, their mosques, their social clubs -- all that, too, is their business and not that of the government.
Privacy. It is precious. Our government has no right to take it from us.
= new reply since forum marked as read