Unclassified letter reveals NSA's warrantless purchase of Americans' internet browsing data

PaddleMaster@beehaw.org to U.S. News@beehaw.org – 53 points –
Unclassified letter reveals NSA's warrantless purchase of Americans' internet browsing data
techspot.com

My data is already bought and sold by companies. But when government agencies do it, suddenly we only need to stop them. Stop this madness. It shouldn’t matter if it’s corporations or a government, why not stop the sale of people’s data?

17

Does the NSA need a warrant to purchase information that's being legally gathered and sold?

While it's extremely immoral and unethical, I'm not sure about unconstitutional.

Does the NSA need a warrant to purchase information that’s being legally gathered and sold?

The governments in the US shouldn't be collecting non-public information without a warrant if acquiring that information directly would require a warrant. Seems like a clear infringement of the 4th amendment.

No, no more than its illegal for a detective to use evidence seized in a raid against a thief ring, to arrest drug dealers because there was a photo of them holding big bags of cocaine with "We Love Dealing Drugs" written and autographed on the back. They'd never have a search warrant for the dealers' house normally, but because it was robbed by someone else and the photo turned up somewhere else for them to find, it's fair game.

Well if a thing is immoral and unethical, then isn't it reasonable to call for it to be MADE illegal?

It absolutely is

then maybe you should limit your 'chilling effect' replies as to not damp down the fervor for change that is starting to develop in response to government overreach.

Arguing that it isn't unconstitutional isn't productive if you want to see it changed.

You don't have to be a Devil's Advocate for bad government policy.

Maybe you should work on your chill, buddy, because I was asking a question. I don't know if the SC has ever ruled on whether the government is allowed to purchase commercially available information without a warrant.

I made no argument in favor of the practice. In fact, I went out of my way to state that I disagreed with the practice.

But you're well aware of that, aren't you?

I bet you think if you lick that boot good enough they won't step on your neck with it.

So fucking naive.

Also I already reported your sockpuppets, enjoy the ban.

I'm sorry about your reading comprehension, buddy. It must be hard going through life with a learning disability.

This is why people should start using Tor alongside their regular browser every day, even if it is for trivial things. Eventually it'll be the difference between life and death for some poor bugger and the least everyone else can do is provide a bit of obfuscating cover.

As if the NSA isn't running an army of exit nodes.

TOR was originally a DARPA project and everyone seems to forget this.

I mean, it's caught a ton of pedos so I can't really be angry but anyone who thought a DARPA project wasn't going to be massively salted with 3 letter agency tracking servers are just plain naive.

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if a ton of those bitcoin doublers weren't NSA agents making some sidecash.

You don't need to outrun the tiger you just have to be faster than the slowest villager.

We should look out for all the villagers and reduce the risk of tiger attacks.