NSA Spying Probably Didn't Break The Law -- And That's The Real Scandal
Mike Masnick at TechDirt writes:
Thanks to a combination of questionable legal rulings and then Congress passing bad and dangerous laws over the past few decades, many of these practices likely are "legal." And thus, the real scandal here may not be that this data collection was happening in the first place, but that it was legal too....This is why many of us have been trying to call attention to things like warrantless wiretapping and the FISA Amendments Act and the privacy-destroying immunities of CISPA for years. Because those in power keeping screaming "terrorists!" to get Congress to pass these laws, and then everyone's shocked (shocked!) when the government goes and does what Congress and the courts have specifically allowed.
...The article above points to the infamous Smith v. Maryland case, which among other things established the ridiculous third party doctrine, which we've decried for years. This ruling said that by "giving" data (such as phone numbers) to a "third party" (such as a phone company) you had given up any expectation of privacy in that data.
Masnick sees a bright side in this (if there can be said to be one), and that's if it didn't actually violate the law, then "we just need to fix the laws, and that may actually be an easier problem to solve (though, by no means easy) than dealing with what to do if laws were broken."
No, I say keep the third party doctrine alive, if it legal for the govenment to hack peoples phones and email then it is equally legal for citizens to do it to the government and government officals as well
lujlp at June 10, 2013 7:42 AM
Although if you really want to change it argure that under this ruling that when production companies (print, music, video) share their material with a distributor they have surrendered their copyright protections
The only thing congress critter care more about than power is money
lujlp at June 10, 2013 7:45 AM
"Fixing" the bad laws won't do a thing to stop our out-of-control government from doing what it wants to do. The real problem is a pathocratic power elite who operate beyond the reach of laws.
jefe at June 10, 2013 9:09 AM
"No, I say keep the third party doctrine alive, if it legal for the govenment to hack peoples phones and email then it is equally legal for citizens to do it to the government and government officals as well."
Good luck with that.
FBI Raid On Deric Lostutter, AKA KYAnonymous, Was In Connection With Steubenville Hack
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/deric-lostutter-raid-kyanonymous-steubenville_n_3403000.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Caim%7Cdl24%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D325824
Sabrina at June 10, 2013 9:28 AM
The problem is these blanket sweeps violate the !st, 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments at the least.
How do we fix that?
Jim P. at June 10, 2013 8:06 PM
'This ruling said that by "giving" data (such as phone numbers) to a "third party" (such as a phone company) you had given up any expectation of privacy in that data."
I suppose that eventually by "giving" data (such as medical history, current health conditions and treatments, etc.) to a "third party" (such as a health care exchange, an insurance company or a hospital) you'll have to give up any expectation of privacy in that data too.
Ken R at June 10, 2013 10:16 PM
I think when, and if, we ever get to the bottom of this, the data collection will be the least of it.
The problem was and is, there is every indication, that the government collected data, was seamlessly integrated into Obama campaign data, and used to harass and target any opposition, and one agency used to do this, was the IRS.
Remember when The Obama campaign was demanding that Romney release his income tax returns, and they claimed that they had seen his return, because of a burglary at an Ohio office?
They had it all right, but it was printed out by their loyal party flaks in DC.
Isab at June 13, 2013 6:27 AM
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