Phaedrus2129

The one time I went to Universal Orlando and went on the Jaws ride, Jaws malfunctioned and got stuck out of the water and they shut down the ride after I'd been standing in line for 90 minutes. Also it was raining, and a seagull shat on me.

Basically, I now hold you personally responsible for ruining my childhood. How does that make you feel?

1. Insider trading. The NSA/GCHQ doesn't just read your emails, it reads the emails of major corporations as well. It can use this information to manipulate the market to earn millions or even billions of dollars, on top of its tax support. It can also use this information to manipulate the market to destroy companies, for instance a company that supports legislation restricting government surveillance, might suddenly find its stock shorted, killing its share value and losing it millions of dollars.

2. Degradation of internet security. The NSA and GCHQ & Co don't just monitor your emails. They also deliberately weaken security protocols, such as encryption and firewall software, to make it easier for them to penetrate. These are called "Back Doors". The idea is that "Good Guy GCHQ" can use the back door to get around your security, in case they think you're a bad guy. The problem is that these back doors can potentially be used by others, for instance malicious hackers or foreign powers, if they figure out how they work. The NSA, in its quest to make its job easier, makes the internet less secure for everyone.

3. Algorithmic threat analysis. The NSA doesn't have an army of people reading your emails. That would be absurd. No, they use computer algorithms to correlate petabytes of data from hundreds of sources, to try to find people plotting attacks. The problem is that these algorithms do not have 3rd party oversight and testing to make sure that they actually work. It is quite possible for algorithms to generate false positives--marking an innocent person as a potential terrorist--while missing dozens of actual threats. We have no idea how the NSA's algorithms work, and they refuse to open them up for auditing. If we can't verify that the algorithms work, how can we verify that the NSA is doing its job correctly and tagging threats that are actually threats?

4. Blackmail. The NSA/GCHQ probably don't care about you in particular. But they do care about the actions of politicians. If they have access to emails and browsing history, they can use compromising information to blackmail troublesome politicians into not opposing them. If the NSA gets a reputation for having accurate information about these things, then eventually they won't even need actual dirt. They can just claim they have information, or fabricate it, and people will believe it because it's the NSA and the NSA knows everything.

5. Political spying. This might not resonate as much with you, but in the US we had something called Watergate, where the President of the United States spied on his political opponents and used the information he got to counter their political campaigns. He did that using actual spies breaking into hotel rooms and planting bugs. How much easier it must be to do that now, when all you have to do is ask the NSA to give you access to your opponent's campaign planner's email and phone records.

6. You're a criminal. No matter how good a person you are and how law-abiding you think you are, odds are you break dozens of laws a year, through ignorance or ambivalence. If the GCHQ, for whatever reason, decided to fuck with you, they could quite easily find evidence of some law you've broken, and pass it on to authorities and pressure them to prosecute. For instance, if you distribute MIT library materials without explicit permission...

7. Suppression of dissidents. One of the most important aspects of democracy is the freedom of dissent, the freedom to disagree with government and push for it to change. In a surveillance state, the powers that be, and the surveillance organizations in particular, have a vested interest in preserving the status quo. If you are perceived as a threat, you will be harassed, threatened, possibly attacked legally. Much like Aaron Schwartz was, who was prosecuted for violating a meaningless law that the alleged victim asked the prosecutor not to prosecute. He was harassed and most likely spied on constantly, until he committed suicide. Dissidence successfully repressed.

8. Interference in other countries' politics. The CIA has always interfered in other nations' affairs, starting revolutions and supporting dictators. Imagine what it can do with the support of the NSA/GCHQ. Everything I've stated in 1-7 applies double for non-western, developing nations, where NSA surveillance makes their work in the US look like innocent child's play. One government's spy agencies should not have the power to direct the economies and governments of entire regions.

9. Degradation of privacy rights. The fact that the government spies on you constantly degrades your right to privacy in all spheres. The government tracks everything you do online? Well then it shouldn't be an issue if companies track you too. Your email and phone records aren't private? Well if they can be searched, why not your physical mail? You want the right to remain silent? Ok, but we're going to listen in to what you say to your lawyer. You say we need a warrant to enter your house? It's ok, we've already used your webcam to see inside, so we don't need it anyway. Giving up on such a fundamental part of privacy, as what you do online, weakens privacy rights in all areas.

10. Look at what's happened in the past. The breadth and power of the NSA & Co's surveillance is greater than any other spy organization in history. The KGB, SS, or Stasi would cream themselves if they could have access to the NSA's abilities. And if we're out-bad-guying the bad guys, are we really still the good guys? What happens when (not if--when) a corrupt or totalitarian party gets into office? We already know that these powers are abused. Imagine what they could do if targeted not at brown people with beards half a world away, but at you, your family, your community. What happens when the "War on Terror" comes home?

This shit is serious.

Edit: Added #8

Edit 2: Added #9 & #10

Edit 3: There's just so much wrong the NSA that I keep finding more. I'm stopping at 10

If you estimate that about 40% of Americans pay Federal income taxes, $120. Ten bucks a month for what will undoubtedly be an enormous boon to the economy seems more than reasonable.

Even with progressive taxation, if you make $120,000/yr and a $200/yr tax increase is a big deal for you, you need to either grow up or sort out your finances, because I make $35-40k/yr and I would gladly pay that price to see our higher education problem fixed.

EDIT: Note that this assumes the $15bn figure is accurate, which I'm somewhat skeptical of. But if we could fix most of the major problems with our education system for that price I think it would be an obvious decision.

Higher proportion of post-secondary educated citizens is strongly positively correlated with higher per capita GDP, higher median income, and greater overall happiness.

Massive individual debt is negatively correlated with all of those.

Correlation does not equal causation, but then we're talking economics here, not science. It's basically a field for people who like to do simulations of things they don't understand. Like String Theory.

What actual activities will be going on on 2/11? I don't think we'll be able to get the government's attention without real people outside government offices. Will you be organizing protests in major cities, or assisting those who do?

I don't have the time or experience to start a protest; but if anyone starts one in LA I'll be there, for damn sure.