Major U.S. news outlets recently broke a number of stories about covert electronic spying on U.S. citizens, and I, like many Americans, am concerned that the government will soon discover all of the illegal things I do and put me in jail . . . No but seriously, I am not happy about these programs, and I fear that, while benign for the moment, they will be used to repress home grown political organization and dissent at some time in the future.
It is clear that the NSA has been monitoring calls between Americans and foreigners with Muslim names. It is not clear how much data mining from domestic sources has been taking place. If you have a computer, use email, or carry a cell phone, you are at risk of surveillance. There is nothing you can do to stop it, and no way to know if you are being watched at any given moment.
Due to widely documented security vulnerabilities in cellular encryption and cooperation with phone and internet service providers, it is possible and in fact quite likely that the NSA monitors millions of phone calls and emails a day without warrants or disclosure.
Although these surveillance programs are highly classified, we do know a bit about how the most basic ones work. Computers known as "dictionaries" are first programmed with a list of words, phrases, voice signatures, email addresses, IP addresses, or telephone numbers. Using speech or pattern recognition software, these machines can scan huge streams of data, marking and recording the correspondence that matches the programmed parameters. The flagged conversations are then forwarded to a human operator who must determine if the conversation constitutes actionable intelligence.
It is also possible for people to determine where a cell phone (and therefore its owner) is at any time, regardless of whether a call is being placed.
Imagine a world where government agents are tracking your online activity, your correspondence, your friends (through social networks and calling behavior) and your whereabouts. Imagine the innocent little lens and microphone on your cell recording and transmitting real time audio and video. Imagine that your worst enemies can find you any time they please.
Join me in opposing the extension and legalization of electronic surveillance before they have us by the short hair.
