What's the problem with PRISM?

[Th1onein]

From: http://news.yahoo.com/whats-problem-prism-203441280.html

The law says the government must limit its surveillance to people "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States."

But everything hinges words such as "targeting" and "collecting," which have unique meanings in the spy world.

As the classified court order released last week shows, officials can grab phone logs from everybody and still say they haven't targeted or collected information on a single American. Only when an analyst reaches into the archives and looks at the information has something been collected.

Clapper uses a library analogy: The government can fill its shelves with books containing the phone numbers of Americans, who they're talking to, how long they talk and where they call from. That doesn't count as collection.

[Downwinder]

1. Am I a target because I receive enciphered Nigerian emails?

They must be enciphered, they don't make any sense.

[magellan]

2. That would be bad enough if that was ALL they "weren't" collecting

They're also "not" collecting the actual phone conversations and contents of emails.

Clapper can fuck himself. He's already admitted this is exactly what's going on (not that we didn't know it before), smarmy-assed word parsing or not.

[Th1onein]

3. HEY! He almost told the truth!

He gave the "least untruthful" answer to the questions posed by Congress. You got to give him that.

[magellan]

4. Do I have to?

I'd rather not give him so much as the time of day. Unfortunately I keep finding I have to quote his ass to wake others up. (That's not directed at you.)

Metadata. Meh! If only that was all it was. I really hate these bastards for making me think twice before I call them bastards.

[reformist2]

5. The existence of the archive is a threat to liberty.

[Th1onein]

6. Absolutely it is. eom

[Recursion]

7. People say that about gun registration too

*shrug*

[Duer 157099]

8. Then why do libraries call their contents collections?