Even By Its Own Ridiculous Metric, The NSA Gets A Failing Grade
from the there's-no-peace-of-mind-when-you-have-no-privacy dept
We just recently wrote about Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, arguing (after admitting that the various NSA bulk surveillance programs haven't been shown to have been useful in stopping any significant terrorism) that the real "metric" by which these surveillance programs should be judged is the "peace of mind" metric. Of course, that's ridiculous on multiple levels, as we discussed in that post. But a bunch of the comments on that post highlighted another point that seemed worth discussing in more detail: if "peace of mind" is the metric by which the NSA's surveillance efforts should be judged, then shouldn't it be a significant issue that most of the public has no peace of mind over the fact that the NSA's surveillance efforts are so sweepingly broad?Way back in June, when the news of the widespread surveillance first broke, we talked about a clip from This American Life talking to lawyers for prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay, who know that their phone lines are tapped, and every one of their phone calls is listened to, no matter who it's with. What was striking about listening to them talk was how this simple act of constant surveillance changed how they acted. It changed how they spoke to people. It changed how they treated friends and family members that they loved. In short, you could tell that these people had no peace of mind at all.
In the meantime, recent research from the Pew Research folks showed that, for the first time ever, more Americans are concerned about the erosion of their civil liberties than of the threat of a terrorist attack. Given that, it would certainly appear that the NSA's mass surveillance programs likely have contributed to significantly less "peace of mind" than they've helped build peace of mind. After all, so far the only thing these programs have successfully "stopped" in the US was one Somalian cab driver in San Diego giving some cash to a terrorist group back in Somalia.
So, really, if we're going to go by the "peace of mind" standard, it seems that there's an even stronger argument for dismantling the NSA's bulk surveillance efforts.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: james clapper, nsa, nsa surveillance, peace of mind
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Peace of Mind
Oh, I guess I just did...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Peace of Mind
We already have the last few emails and posts of yours...
We know where you live....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not cotent with mere re-writes, you now go for re-re-writes.
Let's get back -- ha, ha -- I mean, why don't you START calling for indictments, trial, and JAIL for the criminals, Mike? Instead of lame attempts at a new slant on prior items.
Let's see. Gotta put a tag line on, plus time stamp and code, because the 13-year old fanboy-trolls of Techdirt are again using my screen name falsely. This goes in about two month cycles, as they believe it annoys me...
Masnicking: daily spurts of short and trivial traffic-generating items.
11:52:24[m-705-6]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
You have mis-quoted Mr. Clapper. He said "piece of mind". What he is referring to is the yet undiscovered NSA program that is tied to bluetooth headsets and is actually transmitting a piece of each user's mind to their servers. With their careeful and calculated escallation of panic over talking on cell phones while driving, they have managed to get most states to require hands-free devices that can transmit pieces of a person's mind to them whenever it is in their ear (not on, mind you). They are up to tracking of 42% of American's thoughts - that is the number we should be impressed by.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
FTFY
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Those figues are not very convincing !
So it's a political motivation that makes these people "decide", it's not actually about the NSA, it's a fact that politics in the US works this way. But you had an election, it's clear, it's mostly because of political leanings that created these results.
The surveys, do NOT show a 'groundswell' or anything significance.
Plus it was a survey of 1480 people, how is that even called a survey ??
What region was the survey conducted ? what demographic ?
What percentage of the US population is 1480 people ?
OK, 1480 out of 316,856,000 is what percentage ??
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
The world weeps each time an idiot buys a solar panel you've touched.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
What were you not convinced about ? the number of people surveyed ? or the population of the US ? or something else.
Not that I care what you are convinced of or not.
And don't worry, you might achieve something one day..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
lets have a survey and ask how many people feel a survey of
0.0004671% is representative of the population of the United States !!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
Of course, if you doubt their methodology, you could have just read on: http://www.people-press.org/2013/07/26/few-see-adequate-limits-on-nsa-surveillance-program/2/#about- the-survey
Here is another page specifically created for the idiots who keep bringing up sample size when they don't like a study: http://people-press.org/methodology/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
WHAT OBJECTIVE
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Not cotent with mere re-writes, you now go for re-re-writes.
Based on your reactions, I'd say it does annoy you quite a bit. Which is cool with me since you tend to annoy me pretty much every day.
It is quite amusing to see you go crying to Mommy...er... I mean Mike to make them stop making fun of you when all you really need to do is register an account. You've already stated that you include your email address when you comment, so making an account wouldn't compromise your anonymity anymore than you've already have.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Those figues are not very convincing !
That a person of your level of intelligence and verbiage can "achieve" anything indicates the starkly low standards of Australia. Sorry, G Thompson.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Prisoners vs. Citizens
[ link to this | view in thread ]