WASHINGTON - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information...
Because government and businesses would never abuse your confidence.
...The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a court order between 2001 and 2007.
Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how far the government has burrowed into people's privacy without court permission.
The committee is expected to decide this week whether its version of the bill will protect telecommunications companies.
The central witness in a California lawsuit against AT&T says the government is vacuuming up billions of e-mails and phone calls as they pass through an AT&T switching station in San Francisco.
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, helped connect a device in 2003 that he says diverted and copied onto a government supercomputer every call, e-mail, and Internet site access on AT&T lines.
2 comments:
U.S. Americans should never allow congress/President,or anyone else to decide how much right that the constitution provides us.Already too many rights have been circumvented by laws supposedly made to protect citizens. With freedom comes a few dangers that we either accept,or lose what we did not think important enough.
Isn't it ironic that the AT&T ads all say "The name you can trust"? This is the biggest lie in the world. AT&T is the name you CANNOT trust. This has been demonstrated time and time again. We cannot trust the government to be benevolent and look out for our best interests. We cannot trust corporate America either. We can only trust ourselves.
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