The NSA has been illegally storing email contact lists of up to 500,000 new people per day — for years. This means the NSA is essentially now aware of almost everyone you communicate with. This makes surveillance of groups (like the Tea Party or the liberty movement) extremely simple to monitor.
This has NO congressional authorization, and is stealing your contact list — which is a simple violation of the 4th Amendment, once again. Earlier this year, we found out that the NSA had been keeping track of browsing history, searches, FB messages, phone calls, and almost every other form of electronic communication.
This is a clear violation of the constitution and basic civil liberties. The official speaking below is listing only the official viewpoint — the constitution’s actual meaning is clear. Here’s the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Going through your papers — electronic or physical — to figure out who your “friends” are is a basic violation of the 4th Amendment, especially without any sort of congressional or court authorization. It’s indefensible.
The NSA has not been authorized by Congress or the special intelligence court that oversees foreign surveillance to collect contact lists in bulk, and senior intelligence officials said it would be illegal to do so from facilities in the United States. The agency avoids the restrictions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by intercepting contact lists from access points “all over the world,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified program. “None of those are on U.S. territory.”
Because of the method employed, the agency is not legally required or technically able to restrict its intake to contact lists belonging to specified foreign intelligence targets, he said.
When information passes through “the overseas collection apparatus,” the official added, “the assumption is you’re not a U.S. person.”
In practice, data from Americans is collected in large volumes — in part because they live and work overseas, but also because data crosses international boundaries even when its American owners stay at home. Large technology companies, including Google and Facebook, maintain data centers around the world to balance loads on their servers and work around outages.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said that the privacy of Americans is protected, despite mass collection, because “we have checks and balances built into our tools.”
Most people have NO IDEA this is happening. Some people still believe that Obama is “strong” on civil liberties… even though he’s even worse than Bush.
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