[liberationtech] Query on implications of dragnet eavesdropping

[Louis Suárez-Potts]

On 2013-06-21, at 13:38 , Griffin Boyce <griffinboyce at gmail.com> wrote:

> Louis Suárez-Potts <luispo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > My understanding is that the TSA archives but does not examine the data except under specific FISA searches.  This is their justification that it isn't really domestic spying, because it's a fossil record of the data, like archive.org for every stream, and they just want to be able to go back into that snapshot and get what they want.
> 
> Yes, I understand that, and that also shields them (or any other agency) from knowing too much (and thus having to act on that information). "Too much" would include material not strictly relevant to their remit.
> 
> "We're concerned about terrorists using PGP. Give us all emails that include the phrase "BEGIN PGP MESSAGE" in all caps."
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Every day, one learns a new thing… or at least has one's guesses confirmed—and then does the same old. I think all of us (undefined set of persons but including those on this public list) have simply assumed that all information is kept for always, and that the nature of the always bureaucracy is that it eliminates boundaries of time, so that what you did long ago is what you will do today and tomorrow—this is what makes you "you"--and all can be used to frame you as a penal subject. But then, I'v read too much Kafka and Foucault.

cheers,
Louis