

The [USA] Government is Profiling You - Create
http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/cis/videos/21814-the-government-is-profiling-you

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techtalsky
I'm feeling extremely impotent at this point to cause any meaningful change on
this issue. It seems like the deck is stacked. We have the ACLU and the EFF
but it increasingly seems like a war that can't be won. We're being slowly
inured to total surveillance and it doesn't seem like there's any way to turn
back the clock. It seems like the furor will die down over this particular
issue even though it seems obvious to me that there's almost certainly more
odious levels of data collection than what the government was currently caught
doing. Is there ANY solution or is this the new reality?

~~~
jeremysmyth
The government has to work within the law. This might not sound right, but
they do. The current furore is more to do with how they interpret the law, and
what the law is. So, two things you can do:

* Support organisations who can work within the law and know it better than you do, like the EFF and ORG

* Get involved at a more local level with those who _make_ the law - your congressional representatives and their staff

It's a big world, and a big country, and you might not be able to affect the
executive directly (after all that's what's doing the thing that's making us
feel uncomfortable now), but the reason there are three branches of government
is to limit the executive, and as individuals we can do that by _using_ the
law (that's what the EFF does), and by _influencing_ the law, through your
representatives.

~~~
techtalsky
This is a very small comfort when the government gets to have "classified"
interpretations of the law.

~~~
jeremysmyth
"EFF Takes Fight Against Secret Surveillance Law to Federal Court"

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/sunshine-week-eff-
take...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/sunshine-week-eff-takes-fight-
against-secret-surveillance-law-federal-court)

The EFF is well staffed with people who know what they're doing. They're on
our side.

