Data gathering and internet snooping

[Indofred]

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' | World news | theguardian.com

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its "widest-reaching" system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The presentation is here.

XKeyscore presentation from 2008 ? read in full | World news | theguardian.com

At this point; I'm not going to offer much comment; rather ask for your opinion of data gathering by governments in general.
Do you agree with:
Benjamin Franklin - "Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."
or is security far more important than a potential loss of the right to privacy?

This isn't about Snowden or the American government in particular; more about the general principles involved.

I invite well thought out comment and opinion.

 

[tipofthespear]

The 4th Amendment says: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I agree with Franklin.........and I believe in the Constitution and the Rights and Protections it affords the citizens of the United States, EVEN IF our Government doesn't.

They twist and turn the Constitution into various pretzel pictorials to justify their abuse of power and then cloak it in Patriotism.

 

[tipofthespear]

.........another thought to consider comes from the Declaration of Independence.........

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

{ That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the

Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its

foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall

seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that

Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and

accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils

are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are

accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the

same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it

is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future

security.}

In my opinion.......we have reached a point where our Government has exhibited "a long train of abuses and usurpations........" and we, as Citizens, have the DUTY "to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for future security........"

But that's just my opinion

 

[CrusaderFrank]

How to assemble an atomic bomb

 

[Indofred]

I would tend to fall on the side of not snooping.
Any government can take powers in a supposed reaction against potential attacks but they always take it way too far as, in my opinion, this latest episode has shown.

If your mail came, opened and checked by your government, people would go daft and possibly revolt, but so may people support exactly the same thing with electronic media.