As he does every 90 days, President Obama has once again obtained a renewal for the NSA’s bulk surveillance of Americans’ phone records from the FISA court.
While renewals last year gained a lot more publicity, in anticipation of reforms being debated in Congress, ultimately no reforms were ever passed, and the NSA program continues to operate as is, collecting metadata without serious limits.
This may be the last time, however, as the Patriot Act clauses underpinning the administration’s claims that this invasion of Americans’ privacy is legal are scheduled to expire on June 1.
While Congress doesn’t seem interested in tackling reforms to the program, extending the Patriot Act clauses, having seen how they’ve been abused, will be something else entirely, an extremely controversial question which is sure to be hotly debated.
Differ openly against the rich and powerful — And all hell brakes loose
It ‘s like when the government finds out that you are trying to organize a union at your local Wal-Mart store. Whereupon, government installs a GPS position detector on your car such that when you drive into a Wal-Mart parking lot, by the time you start placing flyers under windshield wiper, people with a “Manager” button come at you yelling, “Security… Security…”
Then if that does detour you, at 2 am will come bangs on your door and all kinds of screwy goings on.
And finally, your wife will be paid a quarter million to divorce you, employer will be pressured into destroying your career forever and by slaving among the migrant workers shall poverty keep you silent.
It's not just metadata, it's the content.
Even with the phone turned off your phone will continue to track you and can be remotely turned on to be used as a listening device. Its not only the NSA and other government agencies that have access to your phone a quick google search for "cell phone spying software" will shock you. You can buy this software for less than $50.00. Others using spyware include jealous admirers, criminals and many companies are issuing company cell phones and tablets to keep track (tracking) of their employees. Taking the battery out works but this is difficult on some phones. You can stop a cell phone from being tracked place it in a Faraday Cage. A Faraday cage is a metal or conductive envelope that completely surrounds the electronic device and stops signals from going into or out of the cage. This can be accomplished by making a pouch out of a metallized ie conductive fabric. Search youtube for detracktor for a demonstration.