Warrants and government snooping

Even though the Law and Order and the CSI families of shows are among the most popular on TV today Americans don’t seem to be paying attention. A poll that came out today shows that most people think a warrant is required if the government is going to eavesdrop on their communication. This is so very false, a warrant is only required if there is an expectation of privacy and even I have seen enough L&O to know this subject has been covered. Thus if the government wants to bug your house and listen to you sing in the shower it needs a warrant, if the government wants to listen to your conversation as you babble on your cell phone it can. Why? You have no expectation of privacy; basically every form of electronic communication has no expectation of privacy. The government can’t read your mail with out a warrant, but as you walk and talk on the street, it can watch and listen to you at its leisure. Why? Again you have no expectation of privacy. See how this works?

Now all this sounds very ominous, but how the average American is watched is actually very benign. They don’t actually listen in while you talk to your mom, and your name isn’t linked to the recording, unless they have reason to care about you. A computer does the listening, and if you use words that are trigger words, then the conversation gets rechecked. Trigger words include Allah, bomb, president, etc or phases that appear to be code, so false positives are very common. ((1: Who sings Lump? 2: The President of the USA. 1: Duh, that song is the bomb!) or The Eagle Flew at Midnight was a great book, but not as good as For Whom the Bell Tolls.) No government funded spy agency acknowledged or not has the resources to monitor every call and person at all times. Now if you are such a stupid terrorist that you didn’t already know the government is listening and you give your whole plan over the phone, and your door gets kicked in and you are whisked away to exotic Camp X-ray, then it is my assertion you had it coming, but the average American should feel free to continue to try and bore the computer to death with the petty details of their petty lives. Don’t believe me that the government really doesn’t care about what you say unless you are a threat to national security. Think of how many people confess to stuff on the phone just by chatting about it with their co-conspirators, think about how efficient law enforcement would be if the government provided even anonymous tips about all the crimes it knew about.

So just sit back, relax and enjoy the fact that your government thinks enough of you to spy on you, because if they didn’t that really does mean you are a nobody and a nothing.