For your own good, citizen
2013-12-18 23:20:00.641597+00 by
Dan Lyke
1 comments
It's okay to keep programs secret from citizens if keeping those programs secret serves the interests of the security state. From the Liberty and Security in a Changing World: 12 December 2013: Report and Recommendations of The President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies:
... A program of this magnitude should be kept secret from the American people only if (a) the program serves a compelling governmental interest and (b) the efficacy of the program would be substantially impaired if our enemies were to know of its existence.
[Bold emphasis mine]
Via EFF Statement on President's Review Group's NSA Report and an @trevortimm tweet.
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#Comment Re: made: 2013-12-19 01:01:16.043991+00 by:
Dan Lyke
From the report, and well worth quoting:
Finally, we cannot discount the risk, in light of the lessons of our own
history, that at some point in the future, high-level government officials
will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private
information is there for the plucking. Americans must never make the
mistake of wholly "trusting" our public officials. As the Church Committee
observed more than 35 years ago, when the capacity of government to
collect massive amounts of data about individual Americans was still in its
infancy, the "massive centralization of . . . information creates a temptation
to use it for improper purposes, threatens to 'chill' the exercise of First
Amendment rights, and is inimical to the privacy of citizens."