Is Technology Outstripping the Ability of Law to Protect Us

[Geee]

PJMedia:

Recent revelations about the National Security Agency amassing massive amounts of data ranging from cell phone records to Internet activity to credit card transactions have, quite rightfully, led many Americans to become concerned about the extent to which our civil liberties are being eroded by government monitoring in the name of “public safety.”

Of course, the government has been engaged in data collection for quite some time. As James Bamford first detailed in his classic 1983 book The Puzzle Palace, the NSA has been engaged in the practice of collecting data for decades now. Theoretically, the agency’s mission was, and indeed still is, supposed to be limited to collecting data on communications between people in the United States and people in foreign nations, especially nations that are potential adversaries of the United States. In reality — even 30 years ago when we were all still communicating via hard-wired telephones and the Internet was still not much more than a research project at DARPA that had begun connecting American universities together — the signals intelligence that the NSA was collecting inevitably ended up including purely domestic communications.

Now we live in a very different technological era. For many people, cell phones are the primary, if not exclusive, means of communication; the Internet has exploded into something that can now be accessed by a device that can fit in the palm of your hand; and we are slowly moving into an era when it will be commonplace for people to store personal data in “the cloud,” where Fourth Amendment protections don’t necessarily apply. To the extent that they have been able to deal with the issues that this new technology presents, courts have been forced to apply precedent based on twentieth, or nineteenth, century technology to the twenty-first century. The result, quite often, has been a decided bias in favor of the state and against individual liberty.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

 

At the same time, Congress has generally failed in its task of honestly debating new laws that apply to these technologies, and has acceded to the requests of law enforcement for greater powers to gather information. The classic example of this is the Patriot Act, which passed Congress with little actual debate by overwhelming margins in both the House and the Senate a mere six weeks after the September 11 attacks. Since then, the law has been renewed with largely inconsequential revisions several times with little notice by the public.

2 quick points (then I'll see if he has any real concrete ideas...I do hope so)

 

A. And how's fault is this? When your Senator/Rep. comes home and does a townhall meeting, have they ever been asked about this? Have people wrote letters to them asking about this? One of the things our system of government is based od is an engaged electorate.

 

B. I have yet to see a law or policy that could not stand a good review/debate from time to time by Congress....not just by us The Great Unwashed.

[Valin]

"I'll see if he has any real concrete ideas...I do hope so"

 

Sigh And I was hoping this would be more that just one more in a long line of rants by Civil Liberty types (and God Bless em!) cataloging how Big Brother is watching. And yet one more time I am disappointed.

 

So the question is...what do you want to do? This is the 13th year of the XXIst century, and we're not going back to the 19th.

Here's the thing, here is where we are, as I point out on The Hinge of History Thread...Gutenberg has just thought uo moveable type...this crazy German monk wants to debate indulgences and how are we saved, some Italian has tslked the queen of Spain in to giving him some ships. And The World will never be the same.