"the Agency is very keen on protecting civil liberties"
Just like the NSA, we know.
They both want to keep civil liberties closely protected.
Very closely.
Two US senators have gone public with evidence of what they assert is a previously secret bulk data collection effort by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), conducted outside the law and without oversight. Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich, of Oregon and New Mexico respectively, on Thursday announced that in …
One Republican, plus one Democratic senator, have reintroduced the EARN IT Act, it exited from committee just yesterday with approvals.
Forget the NSA: the senators are using the usual "Think of the children!" tactic to allow every police construct to spy on you.
Both the NSA and the CIA will be second-rate players once the stoppers on the coppers looking at your private communications are removed.
> [ ... ] the same thing doesn't happen here? In the UK?
Doesn't the UK have an entire agency dedicated to domestic spying? MI5, anyone?
MI5's mission is to keep the country safe
But of course it is. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Get off your hoity-toity moral high horse.
My point was:
AC: And do you think...
...that the same thing doesn't happen here? In the UK?
so here, AC is saying that the same thing DOES happen here
ST: Doesn't the UK have an entire agency dedicated to domestic spying? MI5, anyone?
... Get off your hoity-toity moral high horse.
and here, you are ALSO saying that the same thing happens here, as if AC was wrong.
DN: That's exactly what AC you replied to was saying.
I merely pointed out that it looked like you were criticising what was said as hoity-toity, but you were also making the same point.
Oh, it is way, way too late for hoping that it didn't, folks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Act_2016
It was only found unlawful in August 2021
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252504608/Investigatory-Powers-Tribunal-finds-UK-spy-agencies-unlawfully-collected-personal-data?amp=1
Agree with "duh".
Strong disagree with "more important things to worry about."
Don't worry, I won't be saying "told you so," because when we get to that point I will have long since been silenced. History shows that they come for you "nothing to hide" types later, just... not too much later.
Question: when the CIA takes several months to "redact" a document, who's to say they didn't simply make up a new document entirely from scratch? It's not like there's anybody checking who isn't also also, basically, CIA...
When you are allowed to secretly make your own rules, change your own rules and break your own rules under the guise of some vague directive to provide for national security this is what happens again and again again. It make the rule of law and alleged inalienable rights of the people quite irrelevant. A bad joke.
Eventually, people wake up and figure the rulers are quite irrelevant, also. Then it gets sticky. It's coming. This is one of the Reasons.
Mass collection of the personal data of Americans by the president's personal army is not surprising at all of course. But, it's still really, really annoying. And wrong. Very wrong.
Now we face the indignity of yet another whitewash by Congress etc. It's really annoying. Did I say that already?
I don't know the exact quote but it goes something like, "The weapons of war are always used on the people eventually".
Some may remember the US Govt policy of data gathering in Afghanistan and other places was to "collect it all". Certainly that's what's going on in the USA, and many other places right now, the govt. and in particular the military is collecting it all for whatever use it pleases.
One of the major causes on the American Revolution was General Warrants issued by the King to search for whatever the British soldiers felt like to enforce tax and other laws. We now have the same thing going with computer data. They are collecting it to use as evidence, if they feel like it.
The problem, sort of, it's being done in secret so it's hard to use it in court. So, the next step is to admit it, codify it and then gain the ability to use it for police and proprietorial action.
This is really awful but the vast majority of people don't see it and don't care. They will when it's too late.