Give NSA Unlimited Access to Digital Data, Says Federal Judge
December 8th, 2014Via: Computerworld:
The U.S. National Security Agency should have an unlimited ability to collect digital information in the name of protecting the country against terrorism and other threats, an influential federal judge said during a debate on privacy.
“I think privacy is actually overvalued,” Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said during a conference about privacy and cybercrime in Washington on Thursday.
“Much of what passes for the name of privacy is really just trying to conceal the disreputable parts of your conduct,” Posner added. “Privacy is mainly about trying to improve your social and business opportunities by concealing the sorts of bad activities that would cause other people not to want to deal with you.”
Congress should limit the NSA’s use of the data it collects — for example, not giving information about minor crimes to law enforcement agencies — but it shouldn’t limit what information the NSA sweeps up and searches, Posner said. “If the NSA wants to vacuum all the trillions of bits of information that are crawling through the electronic worldwide networks, I think that’s fine,” he said.
In the name of national security, U.S. lawmakers should give the NSA “carte blanche,” Posner added. “Privacy interests should really have very little weight when you’re talking about national security,” he said. “The world is in an extremely turbulent state — very dangerous.”
Read the Wikipedia link on Posner in the article and weep.
Since “He is a leading figure in the field of law and economics, and was identified by The Journal of Legal Studies as the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century” (a journal he helped found), it seems safe to assume that he has had an outsized influence on the way Amerika has developed over the last 30 years.
Torture ok. Check
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/books/19kaku.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
No privacy for individuals, just for on-duty police. Check
During an ACLU challenge in his court to the prohibition against recording police making arrests, he said “Once all this stuff can be recorded, there’s going to be a lot more of this snooping around by reporters and bloggers.”
Argue to get rid of the FTC and work to gut anti-trust policy. Check
Just look at the evolution of the related US regulatory FCC, allowing 6 corporations to own and control essentially all main stream media.
Lastly, about the fire hose of unfiltered, raw Sigint data flowing from the NSA to Israel:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents
How much have arguments from the “most cited legal scholar” been used to justify that practice? It’s bad enough that the American government can increasingly ignore the document at the foundation of its society, but how good is the firewall between the Israeli government and favored corporate interests? Can you say blackmail, corporate spying and profits? Sure, I knew you could
Suddenly, the recent 29 standing ovations Prime Minister Netanyahu received from our Congress make a bit more sense.