Opinion: Americans are fine with spying — as long as it’s Google and not the NSA

[steven36]

The government is trying to protect us, and corporate America is trying to sell to us

(Updates story that was originally published June 4 to add suspected Chinese hackers.)

Americans have a strange idea about privacy. It’s not OK for the government to collect phone records to defend the nation against terrorism. But it’s fine for Google, North Korea and Blue Cross/Blue Shield to amass all kinds of personal records about ordinary Americans that go far beyond records of “call details.”

On Tuesday, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act and sent it to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature. The bill moves the collection of telephone records from the National Security Agency to individual telephone companies, from which the government can request them, weakening the government’s abilities to defend against terrorism.

Many believe that the federal government should not be collecting phone records because this invades Americans’ privacy. Last month, in a filibuster on the Senate floor, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said: “It’s sort of an end run that has gone around the Constitution, gone around the Fourth Amendment, to collect information that we’ve actually said should be illegal to be collected that way, but we’re doing it because we’ve done it and run around” the Constitution.

Congress is reducing national-security capabilities by leaving it to phone companies to collect and produce records. Phone companies have to keep the information for only 18 months. Some companies might refuse to collect the records, or store them for an adequate period. Others might take their time producing them. From an intelligence perspective, the government is in a worse position than before.

Not that U.S. intelligence services were in a powerful position to begin with. Under the law, the government was permitted to collect “call detail records,” records of phone calls made between two parties without the content. This might have swept up many communications before the days of smartphones, but no longer. “Call detail records” do not include emails, WhatsApp communications, Snapchat, Instagram, video chats, and many other forms of communication that normal Americans, as well as terrorists and money launderers, use on a regular basis.

Many other groups, both domestic and foreign, are far ahead of the NSA when it comes to collecting data on U.S. citizens. Here are four examples.

Google. Google GOOG, +1.90% knows more about you than the NSA does. Google knows where you live, where you work, what are your favorite products. Reasonable people might believe that the young libertarians who support Paul in his drive to end NSA data collection would disable the GPS tracker on their smartphones. They don’t do that. It’s socially acceptable for Google to know about you, but it’s not acceptable for the NSA to have this information for defense purposes. Sen. Paul, can’t you stop Google from posting photos of my house and kids online?

Health-insurance companies. Google might not know your Social Security number or the Social Security numbers of your family members, but health-insurance companies Anthem ANTM, -0.04% and Blue Cross/Blue Shield certainly do. Aetna AET, +1.12% Kaiser and United Healthcare UNH, +0.47% are other companies that have access to such information about millions of us. We know that these data are not safe because just this year Anthem and Blue Cross/Blue Shield have been attacked by hackers, who have stolen personal identity and medical data. The Affordable Care Act has required Americans to sign up with these companies, and mandated that they keep all the data electronically — ripe for hackers. Sen. Paul, aren’t you going to go after Anthem and Blue Cross/Blue Shield?

Foreign countries. North Korea hacked into Sony SNE, +0.66% causing millions of dollars in damage. China routinely spies on Americans, with its government able to access the contents of emails generated in that country — and some emails generated elsewhere too. Those countries are not friendly to us. If they can take our data for their nefarious purposes, why shouldn’t the NSA be able to use it to keep America secure? Sen. Paul, when are you going to harangue China for reading our emails?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing a breach into the stolen records of as many as four million people at the Office of Personnel Management, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. U.S. officials suspect that the hackers are from China.

Average Americans. It is remarkable how much private and intimate information Americans broadcast about themselves when they are talking on cell phones in public places. The same people who object to the NSA collecting “call details” think nothing of talking about their latest raise or marital spat in loud voices in the presence of other people. Sen. Paul, can’t you make them be quiet, for our sake if not for theirs?

Last Sunday, in a discussion with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday about the collection of phone records, Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA, said, “None of these are silver bullets… It’s just piece by piece, thread by thread. You’re giving up threads. It may not make a difference for a while. But then again, it might. And over the longer term, I’m willing to wager, Chris, that it will, indeed, make a difference.”

Under ideal circumstances, the government would not need to collect any data to protect its citizens. But these are not ideal circumstances. Iran is funding terrorists. The Islamic State is marching through Syria to Turkey. ISIS boasts of sleeper cells here at home. America is at war not only with specific countries, but with shadowy terrorist organizations.

Tools are needed to defeat these enemies and protect the homeland. Telephone records are just a drop in the bucket. As someone who had to flee the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, I say: Grow up, America, and face reality.

Source

[Holmes]

I say nsa can spy to battle terrorism google and microsoft I say no unless they have a legitimate reason..

[CODYQX4]

Sounds like typical words from a White House insider.

"Grow up and face reality?" Reality is the constitution says we have the right not to be searched without cause, and the government is ignoring all constitutional limits, and idiots like him follow the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" fallacy just like USSR and Nazi Germany. Now how many decent people got killed/robbed/raped/abused by the police forces that were placed "above the law for their own good"?

Slurping up the internet and reading my email isn't constitutional. I'm not a dope kingpin or human trafficker and no suspicions of being one are thrown around, but them and my email is being sucked through PRISM all the same.