StringBean
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2012
- Messages
- 1,037
- Reaction score
- 393
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
The government makes the claim that it is legitimate Constitutionally for them to collect my private information (phone records, e-mails, google searches, etc) without specific reasonable cause against me. They then assure me that they won't actually comb through that private information without specific reasonable cause to do so.
It is rather like the FBI breaking down your door, running into your house and taking several items, but doing so with their eyes closed and saying "we don't actually see what it is we're taking so it's legal."
So my question is:
Isn't the taking of my private digital information when the violation of my privacy occurs, not when the government claims to "look" at it?
After all, how can any of us know if and when the government actually looks at the information they collect--when they secretly collect it, obtain the warrant through secret courts, and require our elected representatives to keep these programs secret?
Isn't that plainly anti-democratic, and in principle Unconstitutional?
It is rather like the FBI breaking down your door, running into your house and taking several items, but doing so with their eyes closed and saying "we don't actually see what it is we're taking so it's legal."
So my question is:
Isn't the taking of my private digital information when the violation of my privacy occurs, not when the government claims to "look" at it?
After all, how can any of us know if and when the government actually looks at the information they collect--when they secretly collect it, obtain the warrant through secret courts, and require our elected representatives to keep these programs secret?
Isn't that plainly anti-democratic, and in principle Unconstitutional?