Why Snowden/Greenwald will have essentially no effect.

[gulliver]

Very few politicians or leaders of any kind are going to want their fingerprints on policy changes that reduce perceived security. They know that there will be another "terrorist" crime in the future, and they know that people will be looking to nail anyone who did anything to allow it to happen. You only need to look at the Boston Marathon bombing to see why Snowden/Greenwald will have virtually no effect.

If anything, Snowden/Greenwald probably backfired. There will be lots of new "safeguards" trumpeted. There will be lots of "discussion." But in the end, the policies and activities won't change. In fact, the existence of the new safeguards and oversight will probably be used to support an increase in the level of data gathering.

Honestly, I am actually for government maximizing data gathering while minimizing the possibility of abuse. The government isn't completely trustworthy, but it is extremely trustworthy relative to other players in the information security realm. It is democratically elected, so it is backed by that imperfect but maximal legitimacy. It is highly monitored and overseen, both internally and externally. It actually has a legal duty to both protect privacy and maintain security. Try to think of any organization or individual more trustworthy with either. Don't say your Mom or Dad.

[tularetom]

1. Except the government isn't actually doing the data gathering

They're farming it out to private contractors who have no need or incentive to be trustworthy. And God knows what they could do with the information they have collected if they think they can make a buck off of it.

[gulliver]

3. That's true.

We end up basically having to trust a whole lot of people and organizations that are less trustworthy than the government. The government has to do that too. Your ISP, your mobile provider, your doctor (and everyone in their office), your lawyer (and everyone in their office), your garbage collector, your kids, your ex-spouse... No getting around it.

For a buck, for revenge, for power,... if people want to break the law or just trust, there are endless security flaws. The government does things pretty well by comparison. In fact, it is probably the best protector we have against most of these other potential privacy abuses.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

2. That horse has left the barn

Only totalitarians and tyrants want to pirate everyone's private data.

[gulliver]

4. Well, horses come back to barns.

And tons of people want to mess with people's private data.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

5. Not this one

The rat fucking privacy pirates are scum sucking traitors, IMHO.

[Kahuna]

6. They will receive lip-service. But that is all they are going to get. Though...

FTR, I do believe that the NSA's sweep is too large to be effective. They need to find a way to do it where they are not mining useless data that they can't possibly analyze effectively.

[Scurrilous]

7. Indeed.

[DCBob]

8. I suspect there will be some tweaking to tighten up access..

thats about it.