German TV: Snowden Says NSA Also Spies on Industry

[mindwalker_i]

60. I have to admit to being only slightly surprised

to hear that the NSA was doing industrial espionage. I have not heard of any other country doing this, except as speculation by people who, as far as I know, have no access to direct information. Snowden did have access. It also would not surprise me a whole lot if other countries were doing it, especially as you say, China.

In the context of the argument here, I contend that just because other countries are doing it is not a reason that we should, also. The correct response would be to try to limit what other countries are doing in terms of industrial espionage. The solution is to stop it, not to do it ourselves - kind of along the lines of two wrongs don't make a right.

For surveillance by a country of it's own people, specifically by the NSA of us (citizens, or consumers if you prefer), this is destructive to democracy or more generally, to self-governance in that people will be afraid to make their voices heard if it conflicts with what the government is doing. There have been some posts here linking to reports that reporters won't dig into stories for fear of retaliation. So in sort, I believe that the NSA spying on us is bad because it allows our government to become fascist or a dictatorship, or is leading in that direction.

The arguments presented here seem to be that we should not fight back against this which I, obviously, disagree with.