The definition of “target” isn’t problematic at all. Like “collect”, it means whatever the NSA spokescritter using it wants it to mean depending on whether his/her audience wants to hear a small number or a large number (and it might mean something different in response to a question from Wyden than from Feinstein.)
I’ve talked to my Congressmember. She’s talked to Obama. He’s talked to Angela Merkel. That’s three hops, so I’m a target.
And I’ve met both Cory and Xeni, co-conspirators at BoingBoing. And Xeni’s been on National Public Radio, so if you’re an NPR listener, you too might be a target.
Dollars to Doughnuts they’re Indefinitely Collecting on anyone who’s ever headed up a gaming guild.
And just in case anyone isn’t already aware: their position is : Collection of data is legal because humans don’t see it until the LEOs have Cause. But then, see, anything you have said or done in the past two decades can and will be used against you in a court of law …
Combine that with the standard LEO algorithm of pinning the incident to the closest Suspicious Person …
I think the real threat from mass surveillance is not actual direct political persecution, but an instilled anxiety in which we avoid political expression and organization.
well that and the billions and billions of dollars wasted.
this is from Ike’s great speech “A chance for peace”, and I think it is pretty relevant:
"This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
I was thinking the same thing. This massive intrusion by the NSA is an example of spectacular over reach - no exaggeration is needed to sell it as such yet Corry managed to create a misleading headline anyway. Reading BoingBoing isn’t the commonality, it is articles about TOR and Tails, of which a few were published on BB.
I thought from the title that visiting the BB domain meant I was now on the NSA’s targeted list. That is false, according to Cory’s account of the revelations. Is it really too much to ask that headlines not be misleading? it isn’t like this is a one off accident. It is a very clear and continuing trend by a guy who is smart enough to really, really know better.
I’ve ordered books to learn Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian and Panjabi and read Electronic Intifada. Well, I’ve used the words “intifada” and “Zionist”.
What are they going to do? Make fun of my taste in porn?
Nope. If you read BoingBoing it is likely that you worship the president and love the government (and a secretly hoping Obama will pay off your grad school debt). You are a govt loving nerd.
Just before this revelation, a bunch of us were suddenly appointed “Leaders” around here. An impressive title, but with little actual meaningful power.
Ah yes, just about the only place on the entire fucking internet where people don’t tolerate advocating violence towards anybody, a nest of vicious subversives.
I feel rather comforted and warmed by the whole idea. It is like someone is reading my story and cares about my life. I hope they agree with my decision making and are as entertained by some of the emails, I both send and receive, as I am.
Whomever you are, NSA person reading my communications, know that I’m on your side. I’m trying hard to keep you smiling! Someday, I hope, we can sit back and laugh about all the fun and follies you’ve read along with.
