When Governments Surreptitiously Listen

The recent news about government getting phone records from Verizon users and having access to the servers for most telecommunication and internet service providers is sad to hear but not surprising to those of us familiar with some of the provisions of the Patriot Act. I hope there is a chance for discussion of the Patriot Act and a recognition that the powers it gives the government should be reduced or eliminated.

 

It should also be noted that the government had the ability to listen to phone conversations before 9/11 and the Patriot Act. There is a statute called CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) which forced telecommunications companies to design into their products a way to access phone calls and internet traffic so they can be monitored and recorded by law enforcement.

 

Short of discussing the merits of the Patriot Act and the implications it has in terms of our liberty and the energy it gives to our national security apparatus, there are other reasons to be unhappy with what is going on. I offer a few criticisms. 

 

The first is that it must take a lot of time and resources to store and scour all of the phone and emails produced by even a small portion of the American people. And I don't want my government wasting its time and resources going through every phone conversation and email it receives or collects.

Secondly, it is very alarming at how clueless some of the people who have been elected and have approved the Patriot Act are about what has happened. Perhaps they don't realize what has been unleashed. It is hoped that it is not too late to restrict the reach of the government.

And thirdly, this *is* scary when the government has access to this information; it is the only authorized entity which can detain and kill you without telling anyone. I am fearful of government agencies whether national or local who have special access to information and the technology to examine and parse it.

Perhaps this is just a matter of having the right restrictions or the proper safeguards in place that will constrain the actions of those who have access to information and can authorize force in response. But with the bloated national security complex in place, it does not take much imagination to see how any restrictions on behaviors and actions could be ignored or forgotten.

When a government targets people and groups based not on what they say, but on what they believe, great care must be taken to limit its reach into the lives of the people whom it governs.