I want to thank those who have read my earlier post and especially those who signed the petition. For those who didn't see it, the gist is simple: If private companies had a harder time collecting our data, there would be less for NSA to look at.
The truth is, NSA has no backbone of its own--it relies on mining the private sector networks. Even if we believe the companies' protestations that they are being forced to hand over data unwillingly, that illustrates the problem: as long as the databases exist, there is no guarantee that an unscrupulous government can't compel them to be handed over. Laws against NSA snooping are a joke--in an "emergency", you can be guaranteed they will be overridden. The only solution is to begin limiting the scope of data-hoarding in the first place.
We are not petitioning to ban data hoarding by these companies, as much as it would be the best outcome. We are simply asking that it be made mandatory for the companies to ask our permission before collecting our data.
If you agree this would be a good first step, please click on this link and sign the petition. What a great holiday gift we could give ourselves, if next year, there has been real progress on protecting our privacy.
http://petitions.moveon.org/...
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.