

How Americans Were Deceived About Cell Phone Location Data - rosser
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/how-americans-were-deceived-about-cell-phone-location-data/282239/

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gum_ina_package
Once again I'm left with a feeling of "well of course they have this
information". What I'm shocked about is the fact that not ONE new bill,
legislation, whatever has been passed to curb NSA activities. No one has been
fired or resigned and not one of the NSA officials who lied before congress
have been held accountable.

So much for hope and change. So much for democracy.

~~~
jonnybgood
Well, why should they curb it? Some citizens want it curbed, but that's not
always a good reason to curb something. I say look at it from a political
perspective. What does a congressman have to lose politically by introducing
such a bill? Here's a hypothetical: A congressman introduces a bill, the bill
gets passed, and a month later extremists successfully detonate a bomb in a
populated area killing several people. It's now election time. Guess what the
opponent's platform would most likely include. Probably something along the
lines of: "I won't vote on laws that will endanger American lives." Game over
for the congressman.

This is just one possibility why we haven't seen any significant movement
towards legislation. It sounds oversimplified, but it can make or break an
election.

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acqq
How about: because there is still something called the constitution, and those
who lie are the ones who swore and with the highest duty to protect it?

Why does constitution get to be completely ignored now, together with all the
unconstitutional acts by the highest in the government?

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sdoering
Well following the Median-Voter theory, it really explains this all. The
median US voter seems not to care and so there is not enough political
incentive to curb these practices (the same here in Germany: there is not
enough incentive for politicians to challenge the US on this).

To me it seems there is only one thing left to do: Inner emigration.

I have given up. I ignore Government. I really do not want my
psychological/emotional well-being depended on the next worst thing coming
from "The Government (TM)".

My fellow citizens don't care. OK; fine with me. Heading into police state?
OK; fine with me. When dictatorial police state finally arrives I am gone.
Have fun you citizens who never cared.

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Ygg2
Where do hell do you emigrate? What place has such laws that this scenario
won't just repeat itself?

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sigkill
Since he said "Inner emigration" I think he means to say dropping off the
grid. But I maybe wrong here.

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Ygg2
I'm not sure how dropping off the grid would help you? If you don't d it all
the way the others will find you. And living like that is impractical, while
not preventing ability of authorities to find you (just minimizing).

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codex
The NSA has stated that they cannot be effective at paying internationally
without picking up data on Americans every so often. The effort to reduce the
number of accidental collections to zero would be astronomical. Given that,
Americans must decide if they want a foreign intelligence service like every
other world power, or not.

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coldtea
As if they trully only collect on foreigners and the other stuff is
"accidental". That's for small children who also believe in Santa.

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sjg007
We weren't deceived... Just think about what they could technically collect
based on modern technologies and logically conclude that they do or will do.

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salient
"Remember when the administration said X? They lied." \- seems to be happening
quite often.

The almost funny thing is that at the time they also say they wouldn't have
the authority to do that anyway, but when they get caught doing it, they
always try to turn it around and say "but of course it's legal - and it's
necessary _anyway_ (implying that it doesn't really matter if it's legal or
not)!"

And yeah, it's getting a little ridiculous how everytime one more of the leaks
is unveiled, nobody is punished - _in any way_.

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dysruption
Does anyone know any preventative measures?

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pstuart
A _properly_ informed and angry citizenry.

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salient
By the way, just a couple of thousand signatures needed for ECPA reform
petition, and today is the last day (might be just hours, not sure):

[https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-
tell-g...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-tell-
government-get-warrant/nq258dxk)

