So we have all been discussing this, but it's pretty theoretical. Has anyone here been bothered by the NSA (that you know)?
I have a young friend at work. He rails against the NSA. I don't think he's ever been a target. But he has had his credit card info stolen twice in the last year. (New Egg, he thinks). He calmly reports it, and gets a new card.
I think it's odd that this is a huge matter, but is met with a shrug. Business sites are hacked all the time. A hidden shrug.
For me, innovative businesses having their secrets hacked is major. For new businesses, that is their worth, and it's gone.
So let's here your stories. Not what's in the news, but what's in your life. I've been lucky. Nothing to report. Though I keep getting bananas in the mail.
You are arguing that because PRISM does not affect our individual lives now we should be happy to be lied to by a supposedly democratic government. That is nuts.
Firstly - the head of the NSA was caught lying to congress - a bald-faced lie under oath. He still have a job. That proves American democracy is sick.
Normalising a police state paves the way for government abuse. We've seen how this game plays out many times in our recent history. How many Germans could say that the Gestapo never did anything to them in the early days of the 3rd Reich?
The problem with PRISM is it proves the government acts as if it is above the law, and thinks lying to the people is OK in a democracy. It's not really about weather or not I care about them reading my email - it's that they chose to by-pass public debate, and to take the people out of the running of a supposedly democratic country.
PRISM is only what we know about - it proves they lie to us, so what else are they up to? Can we believe a word proven liars say?
If you think this doesn't affect every American you are missing the forest of the trees.
For someone like me, a non-American, the problem is a democratically in-accountable foreign government spying on my governments, and on everyone in my nation. Europeans have much better rights to privacy under EU law - America are breaching my rights, I have every right to care. America is behaving like a rogue nation. Imagine how Americans would react if China was reading all their email? There is no difference - America is behaving just like a dictatorship.
B.
