> NSA officials told Wyden that not only is the intelligence agency purchasing data on Americans located in the US but that it also bought Americans’ Internet metadata.
Why do you need to spy, when you can simply… buy?
We gave up our data willingly and made it easy for all the 3-letter agencies of the world. We only have ourselves to blame. 🤷♂️
(Link HT: @technology)
Oh I’m no fan of the NSA purchasing untold amounts of data about Americans, but seriously how can you blame them for it when the data is readily and legally available for purchase by pretty much anyone? These datasets shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Yeah, “we can do it because there aren’t laws against it” is pretty much the worst justification for anything unethical.
But I guess what do you expect when a large amount of the world equates “legal” with “moral and ethical.”
I’m with ya on that. I could rant on and on about privacy, but this ain’t the place for that, I guess. The gov’t promised if we let ISPs and telcos turn over our data they could catch all the terrorists, and now 20 years later they can’t even catch kids making prank phone calls (SWATting) or telemarketers.
I guess it’s true, people get the leadership they deserve.