> PRISM is an efficient, automated legal warrant process to streamline subpoena and provenance of user data for national security purposes
Dropping the euphemisms, it's a for cops to do their job easier. That's cool when they're doing it transparently, with sufficient oversight and protections against abuse, and with a high success rate. The extent to which any of those three is true is pretty dubious.
Even if you truly do believe in this, which I totally understand–I have plenty of friends who work in this area, they are really behind the whole "we protect America" thing and I'm guessing you're probably in a similar camp–the issue is even more fundamental: it's one of attitude. Just because you're doing something good doesn't mean you have the right to have your job made easier. That's just not how it works. You don't get to take nuclear secrets and work on them from your personal laptop on the beach, no matter how pure your intentions are. When you work on things that are "dangerous" you don't get to just do whatever you want. The PRISM leaks were a scandal because they made the American people feel like the government was not accountable to them, and that is the price you have to pay to do anything in this country. End of story.
Dropping the euphemisms, it's a for cops to do their job easier. That's cool when they're doing it transparently, with sufficient oversight and protections against abuse, and with a high success rate. The extent to which any of those three is true is pretty dubious.
Even if you truly do believe in this, which I totally understand–I have plenty of friends who work in this area, they are really behind the whole "we protect America" thing and I'm guessing you're probably in a similar camp–the issue is even more fundamental: it's one of attitude. Just because you're doing something good doesn't mean you have the right to have your job made easier. That's just not how it works. You don't get to take nuclear secrets and work on them from your personal laptop on the beach, no matter how pure your intentions are. When you work on things that are "dangerous" you don't get to just do whatever you want. The PRISM leaks were a scandal because they made the American people feel like the government was not accountable to them, and that is the price you have to pay to do anything in this country. End of story.