Why is anyone surprised at the data mining?

[leftyladyfrommo]

In the last few years everyone has been listening in to everyone else.

Look how many people have been caught up in e-mail scandals. If you use a cell phone all your calls our out there for others to pick up on.

I have no expectation of privacy anymore. I just figure if I use my cell phone or if I e-mail then it had better not contain anything very private. I talk to people in person if it's personal or very private.

I'm kind of with Bill Maher. I'm just plain scared of the radicals in this world.

[rucky]

1. That especially goes for Congress critters who supported the Patriot Act

then voted to reauthorize it.

These are the powers they granted our Big Gubmit, of which they are willing participants in. Those in Congress who are acting surprised and outraged by this will vote to sunset the Patriot Act immediately, right?

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. I just don't get it.

I just figured it was happening all along.

I don't expect that anything is really private anymore. Not bank records, not phone records, not charge card or debit card records.

I always just keep those parts of my life generic and harmless because I know they can be accessed easily by practically anyone with a little experience in hacking.

[Pholus]

3. So am I.

But you have made an error. It isn't what you say, it is who you associate with.

Make sure you are not communicating with the wrong sort, or your loyalty index will decrease.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I don't know anybody that's the wrong sort.

Not that I know about.

But, yes. I can see your point.

[gordianot]

5. I work under the same assumption everything done by phone and online is recorded or accessible.

If you are a foreign country and use the internet the NSA has your number. Cyberwars and cyber crime is an illusion. It is like the old telephone trace myth promoted by movies, it really takes no time, little effort and is instantaneous. When cyber crime happens someone let it happen.

[Laelth]

6. Lots of people were unaware.

Most people don't follow politics as closely as your average DU denizen. Most of us, here, aren't surprised. We're upset, many of us, yes.

If you're suggesting that we should not be so upset ... well, you're entitled to your opinion on that subject, but I don't think that's going to change the way people feel. This is the Constitution we're talking about.

-Laelth

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I really don't like our total loss of privacy but

I'm just being realistic. The minute everything went online we lost our privacy. There will always be people who can access it.

Kind of reminds me when everyone was on a party line. Everyone knew that everyone else was listening so they were careful what they said.

Remember all the times people in government security said there was no change in the chatter, or there was a real uptick in the chatter? Who did we think they were talking about?

I'm afraid it's the future and the train left the station a long time ago.

[Laelth]

8. It may be too late, I admit.

That said, I can't in good conscience allow this opportunity to pass without taking a stand in favor of the Constitution.

-Laelth

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. and Good for You.

I just feel like we lost so much ground during the Bush years - combined with so much fear of terrorism - that any expectation of privacy out on the internet is just a lost cause.

[LWolf]

10. Why has this question been asked, ad nauseum,

this week? Who said they were surprised?

Hasn't this question also been answered here, overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandover? Did you not hear it the first 100 times?

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. I don't have time to read everything that comes up here.

I don't have much computer time.

Just ignore it.

[LWolf]

12. Okay.

Just read the front page. It's been there, over and over and over, for days and days.

[baldguy]

13. Corporations have been doing it for years. Decades even.

We shouldn't be any more - or less - surprised by the fact that the govt is doing it too than we are when the govt uses computers or cell phones.