Musings of the Great Eric

NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls

I talk about politics a lot, but I generally never let it get to me. I don’t usually react emotionally to it, preferring to keep a certain level of disconnect between my personal life and what goes on in the world around me. In a way that’s really the only way you can deal with it, as you have precious little control over what goes on and it’s so depressing you’d just make yourself miserable for no purpose. However, this shit is scary and chills me to the bone, it’s impossible to read it and not react emotionally:

“It’s the largest database ever assembled in the world,” said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA’s activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency’s goal is “to create a database of every call ever made” within the nation’s borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

I almost didn’t want to talk about this today. The issue is already being discussed so extensively that I really have very little to add to the discussion. But in the end, it’s too fucked up to be silent about.

What could you do with all that data? It’s truly mindboggling. The NSA could mine individual behavior patterns from it, map social networks, and figure out where you are at any given time. And probably a whole lot more I can’t think of offhand. These guys didn’t just overstep boundaries, they took a running, flying leap over those boundaries and never looked back.

And if they’ll go this far, where’s it stop? As frightening as phone records are, what happens when they want to collect credit card records? Search engine histories? The amount of individual information which can be gleaned from this kind of data is downright terrifying; and obviouly they’ll let neither the court system nor justice department stop them, let alone the constitution and respect for the law.

Hate is a strong word. I hate George W. Bush.

Technorati Tags: NSA, Wiretaps, Phone Records, Bush, Privacy, Liberty