> Read my previous comments if you want to see my thoughts on how the media has been getting it wrong, and what the deal is from the perspective of someone who worked in this community.
I can't speak for everyone, and I've certainly been doing a lot of Devil's Advocating on behalf of the NSA and the government, but I think people would feel better if there were much more transparency into things like:
* Why a given collection technique is useful.
* Why that technique can't be replaced by other existing techniques.
* Why good policy-based protections cannot be reasonably lifted into the law.
* And especially whether there are good technical protections in place to protect these masses of data being collected to ensure they are used only for valid investigations. I.e. there is undoubtedly a policy saying not to mis-use the data; is there any superior technical controls also in place?
Because while I'm sure that the vast majority of the 4+ million of you all are upstanding people just trying to do the right thing, we've seen in the past month the damage that just 1 "disgruntled worker" can do...
While getting into specifics of collection shouldn't necessarily be public discussion, as it renders those collections effectively useless (think the old school mafia knowing what they can and can not say to be rendered into evidence in court), a framework is definitely a necessity. There is already a framework in place, but it doesn't address what the public concerns are. We should publicly answer questions like:
-Is it okay to collect intelligence on foreign governments?
-Is it okay to collect on allies?
-What are the boundary markers for the government abusing its power?
-Can we amend the constitution to reflect privacy concerns of the 21st century?
-How many civilian casualties are the threshold for being a tolerable amount in America?
Just questions to get you thinking about things. I feel like the majority of people's indignant outrage, if not translated into action in fixing a perceived problem, is passively accepting the status quo.
I can't speak for everyone, and I've certainly been doing a lot of Devil's Advocating on behalf of the NSA and the government, but I think people would feel better if there were much more transparency into things like:
* Why a given collection technique is useful.
* Why that technique can't be replaced by other existing techniques.
* Why good policy-based protections cannot be reasonably lifted into the law.
* And especially whether there are good technical protections in place to protect these masses of data being collected to ensure they are used only for valid investigations. I.e. there is undoubtedly a policy saying not to mis-use the data; is there any superior technical controls also in place?
Because while I'm sure that the vast majority of the 4+ million of you all are upstanding people just trying to do the right thing, we've seen in the past month the damage that just 1 "disgruntled worker" can do...