> The NSA is, despite everything we're being told by some people (Bruce), on our side.
Define 'our side' please. I'm not convinced of that. And if you take the temporal element into account you might very well find that the NSA is even against 'your side' in the longer term. Information gathered indiscriminately has a tendency to concentrate on the bad parts. If I vacuum up all your communications over the last 20 years or so and pick out the bad bits while deleting the good bits you'll look like a pretty bad person no matter how saintly you are in real life.
A disputed quote (but generally attributed to Richelieu and quite applicable):
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
The potential of abuse of this data is simply too large, no matter what the potential benefits and whether or not the NSA is on 'our side'.
Define 'our side' please. I'm not convinced of that. And if you take the temporal element into account you might very well find that the NSA is even against 'your side' in the longer term. Information gathered indiscriminately has a tendency to concentrate on the bad parts. If I vacuum up all your communications over the last 20 years or so and pick out the bad bits while deleting the good bits you'll look like a pretty bad person no matter how saintly you are in real life.
A disputed quote (but generally attributed to Richelieu and quite applicable):
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
The potential of abuse of this data is simply too large, no matter what the potential benefits and whether or not the NSA is on 'our side'.