However its the very nature of the beast when it comes to digtal data that everything is logged one way or another. There is a trace in every little thing you do in the digital age.
If you look past the thought of someone “grabbing” your data, its always stored. An email you send now has two copies, yours and the one sent. How many people delete there e-mails regularly? Not many, hardly anyone cares to go and delete traces of any email because they feel safe behind their password. In big corporations e-mails whether you and the recipient delete them is irrelevant, companies keep backups of all communications for legal reasons.
Everything you do on this forum is now logged and kept somewhere. Even if you go through and edit and delete all your posts (unless your an admin) there is a record of everything you said.
Everytime you type something into google or go to a website, your ISP is logging that request, not just to be snoopy but it needs to be done to troubleshoot problems as well.
Sure these logs can be purged, and they sometimes are, but storage is cheap these days and in the eyes of many its far more beneficial to keep as much data as possible.
We’re talking digital here… and as I said Everything you do, every link you click on… every word you submit is now logged and stored, its the nature of how things work. Sure there are services and methods to have real time conversations, encrypt your internet communication etc but thats just not how this world works right now except for the few that know and want to do it.
They are taking advantage of somethign thats been there since the dawn of the internet and digital communications. Now granted mostly this was done in a correct legal fashion, agency gets warrant, serves to ISP or various other internet company and gets the data… The method in which the NSA is doing it is a little sneaky I will admit. They are simply just pulling in all incomming traffic before it ever reacher the data center to bypass the whole Warrant thign because they have a direct line to the data before it ever gets to where its going… However I also see there reasons for doing so, being able to pick out and vet information to pick out communications from terrorists and other evil plots so to speak. It’s not like they have been knocking down the doors of your friend for buying a dime bag.
Completely right? No… but if it was transparent and we knew about it, if a bill was passed publically and a way for voters to voice their concerns then I’d be more comfortable with it. However the does not change the fact that it should not be used for fishing expeditions.