Senate approves USA Freedom Act

[buddhallah_the_christ]

Senate approves USA Freedom Act
Does the American people really buy this slapping buzzwords like 'freedom' and 'patriot' in these acts?
Does anybody still believe in the freedom here in America?
It is another political mirage for silly residents...

 

[Donald Polish]

"Section 215 of that law will be changed to stop the NSA from continuing its mass phone data collection program".
Does anyone actually make phone calls that much anymore? They're still going to track everything else they want that passes through the internet. Communication isn't done over the phone like it used to be. Is there any word about the freedom of the Net?

 

[EverCurious]

I believe they were tracking cellphones and landlines. Almost everyone has cellphones. If I'm not mistaken they're still monitoring for keywords, calls from x to y, and what not, just /they/ don't get sent a list of everyone's shit; who they called, when, etc. The whole thing is just a pretty bow on making folks feel better because the "government" doesn't have their info, thing is the phone companies do so really there's no "more" privacy, it's just who you are trusting with your pseudo-privacy...

Personally, I don't particularly "care" if the government is reading my shit, listening to, or tracking my conversations, but at the same time I can certainly see the "slippery slope" argument merits, and I understand folks who want the [illusion] of privacy [since phone companies can do the same], or they fear the government being involved in their private conversations and lives. I usually err on the side of caution, but which "caution" gets a bit more tricky for me to decide...

That said, I actually trust the government more than my local phone company to respect my privacy, because I feel I have more... "ability" to argue against a government intrusion, than I would the local phone companies. A local phone company at best is just going to just say "We fired that employee, so very sorry," maybe throw some cash at me to shut up, but never actually change the policies that led to the "breach," where as uproar at the government might take longer, but they are more likely to get flack and be forced to change the policy - case in point. ~shrug~

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Senate approves USA Freedom Act
Does the American people really buy this slapping buzzwords like 'freedom' and 'patriot' in these acts?
Does anybody still believe in the freedom here in America?
It is another political mirage for silly residents...

Ignorant, hyperbolic nonsense.

Americans enjoy greater freedom and liberty today than at any time in this Nation's history, and that freedom and liberty have never been more secure. Indeed, a recent Federal court ruling invalidating the 'metadata' policy is proof of that.

What were witnessing is a process healthy and normal to our Constitutional Republic, a process that has been in place since the advent of the Republic, where the people, through their elected representatives and the courts, work to determine the extent of individual liberty and the limit of government authority.

The issue with the surveillance programs is more their lack of effectiveness as opposed to their constitutionality, where the government is hard-pressed to justify the existence of the programs with evidence that potential terrorist attacks where indeed stopped.

Otherwise, citizens retain their full and comprehensive right to due process of the law, and the right to challenge any effort by the state to subject citizens to criminal prosecution based on the evidence gathered by the surveillance programs.