Is anyone else not surprised by this/already knew of its existence? This is exactly what the PATRIOT act was designed to do and nobody gave a shit when it was reauthorized. The existence of PRISM and how it takes in all incoming data came out years ago(see link at bottom). What galls me the most isn't the "spying" it's the people posting on facebook and elsewhere about how they don't want the Federal Gov collecting this that and the other all while they give moutains of data that is much more personal to facebook and alike. As a whole the NSA and other agencies are really only using this data for counter-terrorism and not to bust potheads and other wastes of resources.
I'm more bothered by the fact of how much we spend in taxes/time/resources on shit like this for counter-terrorism which has claimed, what, 2000 lives over 23 incidents? We can spend billions on this shit but can't give ATF permission to use computers or the ability to audit crooked gun shops at least once a year since 1% of gun shops account for something like 75% of guns used in crimes and the ATF cant require gun shops to keep useful records and can only audit inventory typically every 18 years.... Let's not even get into the fact that we are the only developed nation in the world that let's people die from curable diseases because they can't afford medicine and all the other shit about the Federal Gov that's fucked up.
Hell preventing terrorism is one of the few things the Federal Gov still does well but given how much money we spend on it the return on investment is pretty shitty. For example, our tax dollars paying an analyst with no college education over $100K to start when they think Hong Kong has great respect for free speech and a history of helping asylum seekers(they don't) .
Annnyyywayyy, my point here is am I the only one here who really doesn't give much of a shit about the whole PRISM thing and realized that this was already happening and that private business has a hell of alot more personal and embarrassing data on us? This nation sold out on privacy a while ago. If we didn't give up all this data to these companies in the first place PRISM would be a non-issue, it's like saying "HEY ASSHOLE FEDS! I MEANT FOR THAT DATA TO BE SHARED WITH MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS/STRANGERS ON THE NET/ETC BUT
NOT THE OUTSIDE CHANCE AN ANALYST AT NSA MIGHT GLANCE AT IT AND IGNORE IT GOD DAMNIT!"
I realize that there are lots of people who don't go nuts with sharing personal info on facebook and elsewhere and that kind of outrage I can wrap my head around. If you're the type who goes out of their way to stay anonymous and told your members of congress when FISA/PATRIOT was up for re-authorization to vote against it, then by all means be pissed because your anger is justified. But to all the people who didn't give two fucks to do anything when PATRIOT act was created/reauth'd and those who share their location every day on twitter and shit, please STFU already.
Two last points/questions:
Anyone else think the NSA whistleblower/leaker is a bit dumb to seek aslyum in Hong Kong based on their "free speech"? I can think of at least a dozen other countries better for suited for this guy's situation. Maybe one that isn't basically part of China or doesn't have an extradition agreement with the US? At least pick one that has better free speech if that's going to be your reasoning.
Anyone else think its kinda neat that they actually stick a prism on the huge undersea international cables (TAT-14 I'm guessing) to split the incoming data and that they manage to take in all that data? Just from a logistical standpoint its pretty interesting. Here's a link telling how NSA started putting prisms on fiber optic cables a while ago:
http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/953/spying.html .... careful though it's from the International communist league so the NSA will now know you are a Commie and will be at your door in an hour
/end rant
