> "NSA is a intelligence agency: spying on foreigners seems to me like it'd be their objective, regardless of the revelations ... Other foreign intelligence agencies do their share of spying on foreigners too"
I don't know why we should find this more acceptable, whether NSA or foreign agencies. If it is supposed to be acceptable, than give every single person even greater power of surveillance of powerful government/corporate entities and their agents, given their power, they are more likely to do serious harm when unaccountable.
Whether or not it should be acceptable (aside: I'd agree it shouldn't), no one (few) was complaining until very recently. I mean why else have they been hiring the best mathematicians, cryptographers, & programmers with their billion dollar budgets? Acting like we didn't know it was to spy on foreigners until now is a bit disingenuous to me.
>Whether or not it should be acceptable (aside: I'd agree it shouldn't), no one (few) was complaining until very recently.
That's also a flawed argument. So what? Awareness has to built up for complaining to happen first -- and sometimes it doesn't even build up that much. Sometimes the complaining only happens after much damage has been done.
The existence or not of complaints against something doesn't justify it. People didn't complaint about slavery much back in the day either.
I don't know why we should find this more acceptable, whether NSA or foreign agencies. If it is supposed to be acceptable, than give every single person even greater power of surveillance of powerful government/corporate entities and their agents, given their power, they are more likely to do serious harm when unaccountable.