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In reply to the discussion: For The Record: The NSA Spied on All Americans. It Is a Fact. [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)Unfortunately for your argument, there were only two situations where NSA gathered data on US persons without a warrant. At least, there have been only two situations that have leaked so far.
1) Situations similar to the "jealous ex", where someone spied out of vengeance. In the situations that have leaked, the person doing the spying was caught and punished, though the punishments have not been leaked.
2) Phone metadata. Unfortunately for your claim, there's an overly-broad 1979 SCOTUS decision that applies quite nicely.
Essentially, the SCOTUS ruled that phone metadata is a run-of-the-mill business record that belongs to the phone companies. As a result, do you not have a right to privacy regarding phone metadata, and a warrant is not needed before collecting it. Just like you don't have a right to privacy regarding your phone number itself. For example, even if your phone number is unlisted, it's displayed to the owner of an 800 number when you call. "Unlisted" only counts for us proles.
Other situations that leaked were not US persons, and non-US persons do not have any Constitutional rights.
But here's why you are being really, really, really dumb on this: The NSA isn't the end of the problem.
The phone companies already sell your phone metadata to anyone with a checkbook. After all, it isn't private.
So let's pretend your argument was actually true, and as a result you shut down the NSA programs. You still have no privacy. The phone companies will go right on selling your data to anyone with a checkbook.
What we need is a law to stop both the NSA and the phone companies. But if you convince everyone that your argument is correct, we do not get that law - You erroneously convinced people that stopping the NSA stops the privacy violation.