Because a terrorist might have gotten into American borders, the entire world needs to be watched? There can be no liberties in such a world. I'd rather die in a terrorist attack. There will always be a threat somewhere. One day you might realize that governments are more dangerous than nameless, faceless, borderless terrorists ever were.

This was meant to be a response to LWATCDR. Sorry for the mix up.

I'm certain for Stalinist Russia, there was some good that objectively came out of mass surveillance as well. It was however relative to which side of the surveillance you were on. True liberty comes with risks. Security is a lie surveillance tells those who are being watched.

The sad part here, is that you aren't being given the choice to opt out, and keep the liberties that were granted to the citizens in America.

You said it best when you said you don't understand. If you can't define what material support mean in its fullest geometry then why would you feel safe accepting it as in your best interests.

"We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that inhibits the work of human rights and conflict resolution groups. The 'material support law' – which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism – actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence. The vague language of the law leaves us wondering if we will be prosecuted for our work to promote peace and freedom." Jimmy Carter

Not only are you now expressly forbidden freedom of speech, thought and association. You will be considered an enemy of the state and immediately you lose any and all rights to a free trial as a result.

Define clearly how material support can never be bent to the best interests of the government?

If you have to ask this question, then the likely answer is no. We cannot explain it to you. The fact that this is a nebulous contrived term it will be twisted to mean whatever suits the agency needs du jour.

You see the NSA isn't collecting data on millions of Americans... The collection happens when the NSA reads the collected err. captured data.

Of course since there is an algorithm that sorts the data and no human touches it, then they can analyze it without fear of collecting err. reading your data.. no one is hurt you see.

Accountability? Hmmm. That is just crazy enough to work!

He upheld his oath to uphold the constitution. Not doing what he said is a violation of the highest order in America.

MEDICAL TOURISM. Costa Rica is cleaner, and safer and if I recall cheaper.

The same NIST that perverted standards for encryption to weaken it to help make it safer for them to use?

"Companies such as Facebook and Google are closely watching this case, given the potential of billions of dollars of liability for selling inaccurate information on their customers and other people."

I was under the impression, and perhaps naively that Google did not under any circumstances sell personally identifiable data, or other information to 3rd parties. I know MS has been found guilty of breaching this, but what if at any, would Google be on the hook for here?

"Also, he told secrets to the public, instead of his mistress."

Snowden gave the documents to journalists for them to reveal. Don't be lazy and misrepresent it even accidentally. Beyond that they weren't even just "journalists" they were lawyers etc.

The very rhetoric the American politicians used about the evil russian empire is that they surveilled their citizens. spied on journalists, actively suppressed the ability for their citizens to dissent.

This is the exact America we have now. Anyone who can claim to remember that era, yet conveniently capable of forgetting why Russia was bad, does not actually remember a damn thing. Also the Church Committee was still quite recent where the clear abuses of government and intelligence agencies was piled high upon the morass that was the Vietnam war which Ellsberg clearly dismantled for the propaganda it was. Anyone today who lived through that era, who can claim Snowden is the bad guy here, didn't understand it then, and doesn't understand it now.

If they are too lazy to care and to react, they are too lazy to understand it.

If they let people upgrade their own phones this wouldn't happen

Are you too young to understand why Microsoft earned the nickname : The Evil Empire? Or are you just completely uninformed and willing to sound like a fool? If this seems rude to you, it is because you know you have no idea what you're talking about.