What About Laws on Wiretapping?
The Laws on Wiretapping Aren’t Well Understood and Don’t Benefit the Public.
The laws on wiretapping were originally established to allow the government to monitor foreigners who may have been plotting against the United States.
Many of them were first written during the Cold War, and they expressly forbid the use of wiretapping against American citizens… at least in the public version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA).
However, FISA also opened the door for warrantless wiretapping, setting off a chain of events that has culminated in the recent revelations that through special executive orders and broadened interpretations of FISA and other surveillance law the government has been monitoring domestic communications.
The government has forced AT&T;, among others, to reveal emails, phone conversations and search records to the feds for the purposes of monitoring citizens.
Well, forced is a bit of a strong word… after the fact and once the wiretapping was discovered AT&T; is free to say whatever it likes, but at the time it seems there was little resistance.
The company also didn’t seem to think that it would get in any trouble for co-opting it’s customers with the federal government.
Why?
Well, the laws on wiretapping protect the corporations and the government, but they don’t offer citizens much in the way of recourse.
EFF Fights Broken Laws on Wiretapping
Fighters are Few
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the few groups that seems to be giving a damn about the blatant violation of the principles of civil liberty.
Yes, there may have been laws on wiretapping broken, but it’s the spirit of the thing that smarts worse than the fact.
What kind of government spies on its own citizens? What the heck kind of world is this?
Is this really America in the 21st century? Somewhere, George Orwell just won a beer from somebody for predicting this all along.
The government watches because it suits their agenda. Warrant, no warrant, whatever.
The police state is on the rise and they want to have all eyes on all citizens all the time.
Ignorance is Bliss
Thanks to modern technology, it has gotten a lot easier for the government to quietly spy on its citizens.
Most have no idea and live a happy life of ignorance, thinking that the government is their friend and just there to protect them from those evil terrorists plotting out there somewhere.
It’s no longer necessary for the FBI or CIA to be at the house, planting bugs.
The web takes care of all of it. Yet just because it isn’t seen doesn’t make it any more noble or permissible.
It’s a blatant violations of citizens rights and should be opposed and routed out wherever it is found to occur.
Wiretapping is the mark of a socialist, repressive state, and it doesn’t belong here… yet.