Standing For Or Against NSA Surveillance

The ideological battles are coming at us hard and fast. In the world of cyber security, the line seems to be drawn in concrete: do you endorse or decry the NSA’s data collection and surveillance?

At least we can see clearly who supports this activity – or at least, it seems we can.

Strongly in the Pro-Surveillance of US Citizens corner is Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),  chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Our great strength today, ladies and gentlemen, in protecting this homeland is to be able to have the kind of technology that’s able to piece together data while protecting rights,” Feinstein said. “I will do everything I can to prevent this program from being canceled out.”
(https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242916/Senator_vows_fierce_defense_of_NSA_data_collection_surveillance_programs)

In the other corner,

“Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will push for legislation that would end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records. Leahy is lead sponsor of the FISA Accountability and Privacy Protection Act.” (from the same article)

We all should be thinking quite carefully about these issues. A surveillance state, once established, will require something like the total collapse of human civilization to remove. We’re deep in the quicksand here. It’s going to matter – a lot – which rope we grab.

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