The Inevitable Privacy / Government Posts - Part II

(This is part 2 of a series.  The first post is here.)

So Everything Was Super

FISA, passed in 1978, set up safeguards to protect U.S. citizens from spying activity, and putting a system in place to allow court and Congressional oversight if these things.  And, more or less, that was the deal.

Until September 11, 2001.

The intelligence community's reaction - like that of every person and institution on the planet - was extreme and visceral.  By the beginning of October, 2011, President George W. Bush asks his advisers about the various interpretations of what would be possible in leveraging the existing intelligence collection infrastructure to apply to more generally targeted (i.e. domestic) targets and sources. He gets an earful.  Within days, he has authorized an expansion of NSA authority well beyond anything documented to that time.  Effectively, authority is granted to collect data about the activities and communications of U.S. citizens, including those taking place entirely within the borders of the U.S.

Without going into the details, which are well-documented in several places, including as evidence in EFF's legal cases, a series of legal interpretations escalate into virtually unfettered surveillance power, to the point where taps are placed on the core fiber switch points throughout the U.S.  As the costs of mass storage continue to drop in accordance with Moore's Law, and as unlimited funding for "the war on terror" continues to appear from many sources, a system takes shape that is capable of capturing and preserving almost every aspect of communication: spoken or written, direct or deduced, that has come within reach of anything digital.  This includes your land and cell phone calls, every email and fax, every web page you've visited (on purpose or not), every search term you've ever entered, every cable channel you've flipped through, every book listing you looked at on Amazon, every toll booth you've taken your car through, every stop light you've driven through.

"Just smile and wave, boys.  Smile and wave."

In the follow-on, through revisions of FISA, including extensive revisions in 2007 - our representatives in Congress granted legitimacy to most of this, to one degree or another.  By "granted legitimacy",I'm talking about the granting of retroactive immunity to telecom companies and other tech companies who have cooperated with the NSA and other agents of the federal government.

The people theoretically elected to provide the oversight, and the voice of the citizenry in the government made this call:  That the concept of security was more significant than the rights of individual citizens.

I Don't Have a Tin-Foil Hat

Not me.  Really.

Before going any further, most of those who know me and are reading this are aware that I'm not a conspiracy-theorist type. I'm an information sponge, and to understand the realities and motivations of the individuals involved to come to an understanding of the situation.  I'm open to additional evidence on most questions, though there are certainly those who feel my standard of evidence are rather strict.  That's OK: I don't share their taste in hats, either.

So, to say that I find nothing revealed in the last week shocking may come as a surprise.  But the fact of the matter is that what we're seeing are just the details of the specific plans and authorizations that have been available to us for years.  But, for the most part, we don't care.

We don't care because some of it is difficult to understand and because, even when understood, it's a difficult set of questions to confront.  It's a little embarrassing, and it requires that we tread on uncomfortable ground personally, and as a nation that claims to be a bold experiment in democracy and Enlightenment values.  It's sort of like having to have "that talk" - but with the government instead of with a child.

How we handle that uncomfortable talk will probably determine what kind of country the next generations will live in.  More depth on that in Part III.

As always, thoughtful commentary is welcome.  Trolls and those seeking therapy or metallic wardrobe advice need not apply.


Back to Part I                 On to Part III