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Destroying the Right to Be Left Alone

Christopher Calabrese and Matthew Harwood Tom Dispatch.com
Tomgram: As Christopher Calabrese and Matthew Harwood indicate today, however, gigantic as the NSA’s intrusions on privacy might be, they are only part of an uncomfortably large story in which many U.S. agencies and outfits feel free to take possession of our lives in ever more technologically advanced and intrusive ways.

The NSA's Metastasised Intelligence-industrial Complex is Ripe for Abuse

Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson The Guardian
Where oversight and accountability have failed, Snowden's leaks have opened up a vital public debate on our rights and privacy. The relevant issue should be: what exactly is the US government doing in the people's name to "keep us safe" from terrorists?

86 Civil Liberties Groups and Internet Companies Demand an End to NSA Spying

By Rainey Reitman Electronic Frontier Foundation
"This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures..."

It's the Corporations, Stupid

Juan Cole Informed Consent
I am genuinely puzzled as to why the Fourth Amendment is no longer taken seriously, much less literally, by any significant faction in American politics. My hypothesis is that whereas the gun manufacturers clearly make big bucks off their weird absolutist interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, there is no set of corporations that would lose billions of dollars if the government snoops into your phone records or email traffic.

Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind Revelations of NSA Surveillance

Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras Guardian UK
The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

Google’s Spymasters Are Now Worried About Your Secrets

Robert Scheer TruthDig.com
Every time there is a so-called terrorist attack on American soil, pressure to ramp up the reach of our increasingly omnipresent surveillance state spikes, sweeping ever-larger numbers of people and more intimate information concerning their lives into national databases.

Equifax Knows Quite a Lot about You

Amy Traub The American Prospect
Equifax knows quite a lot about you and so do Netflix and Google and Facebook and all kinds of political campaigns not to mention technology and marketing services conglomerates and . . . well you get the idea. Houston, we have a problem. -- moderator
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