Should the NSA access your phone records?

I agree with Obama that the government can fight terrorism better if they had access to everybody's phone records, but is accessing all of Verizon's records for all of it's users going too far?

I believe it is too Orwellian. I say "Let em get a specific search warrant... issued by a judge (not a prosecutor)... if they need to pry into our private lives."

What say you?

It would be kind of boring for them to listen in on me, but whatever they think they need to do.....

Seriously, I think the government has gone way too far this time. "Orwellian" describes this latest action well.

Now I read where the big hunt is on to find and punish the "traitor" that leaked this program and a program that captures texts and chats off the Internet.

I, for one, want to know about how our gubment is spying on it's citizens.

I don't put this "leaker" in the same class as Bradley Manning.

I'm with PB mine would be boring. Most of the time when my cell rings I cut the cller off trying to "flip" my phone open. Yes, I have a flip phone.

I have a flip phone too. I hate cell phones but I try to remember to take mine with me when I leave the house.
I just don't know enough about this to know how bad it is. I do think that there is really no such thing anymore as privacy.

I would not want to be the one that did it. Back in the day they used to say that anything Top Secret only had a life span of 6 months. I dont know. But they have not declassified some stuff from when I was in. If fact our units Facebook group Mod got a email from a "Friend" saying that telling certain old "Stories" was not a good idea. We are very careful about what we say and events we reference. It is not anything people dont all ready know, but the rules are still there. One time we think(they never say) someone compromised some info and they brought in the big boys from Fort Mead to "Talk" with about 20 of us. It scared the hell out of me!!! Strange things sometimes happen to people and you damn sure dont want to be one of them.
I dont know if it is right or wrong but when you take a oath to keep something classified it is damn good idea to do it.
I dont think Manning really knew what he had. When you work in a area and everything is classified and the literally tons of "Top Secret" stuff laying around it seems to lose it glamour and Mystique. Until a piece is compromised, then the shit hits the fan, big time.

My brother was military and had a high level security clearance....and we were told by him that his calls were more than likely monitored. Of course we knew all of the satellite calls were monitored.

You all are correct. This is just a rumour and not a fact. Listening to phone calls is about the most boring thing you can do, so they say.
The issue is that they have too much capacicty to listen. They say it is like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose. I dont know

Billions of our dollars are being spent for huge "data centers" across the country. I don't think they are recording much audio from the domestic phone calls of average American citizens, but I'll bet they would like to have a complete record of all of them.

Read this today:


Why the Metadata the NSA Has on You Matters

In response to the recent news reports about the National Security Agency's surveillance program, President Barack Obama said today, "When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls." Instead, the government was just "sifting through this so-called metadata." The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made a similarcomment last night: "The program does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone’s phone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the identity of any subscriber."

What they are trying to say is that disclosure of metadata—the details about phone calls, without the actual voice—isn't a big deal, not something for Americans to get upset about if the government knows. Let's take a closer look at what they are saying:

They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.
They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.
They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.
They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.
They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.
Sorry, your phone records—oops, "so-called metadata"—can reveal a lot more about the content of your calls than the government is implying. Metadata provides enough context to know some of the most intimate details of your lives. And the government has given no assurances that this data will never be correlated with other easily obtained data. They may start out with just a phone number, but a reverse telephone directory is not hard to find. Given the public positions the government has taken on location information, it would be no surprise if they include location information demands in Section 215 orders for metadata.

If the President really welcomes a robust debate on the government's surveillance power, it needs to start being honest about the invasiveness of collecting your metadata.

Republished from the EFF under Creative Commons

Hell no! I hope it is just a rumor although like y'all mine would be BORING!

Get the gov't out of our lives, dammit. (for you Joani)