[bestbits] Reform surveillance

[Mike Godwin (mgodwin@INTERNEWS.ORG)]

Gene, it’s hard to assess your suggestion without the numbers, but, if history is any guide, it does not seem to be the case that the NSA has ever been constrained by budget limitations.

If privacy advocates succeeded in profoundly limiting what internet companies collect, so that the cost to NSA for bulk collection would be 2X instead of X, do we really think NSA wouldn’t be able to get get 2X in appropriations for that particular component of its intelligence gathering?

If the argument instead is that limits on commercial data-gathering would increase the cost from X to, say, 10X, I’d find that a persuasive argument for focusing on “supply side” instead of “demand side," by the way — but I’d have to see some numbers in support of that argument to be persuaded.

In the absence of numbers, I think we have a good historical window for putting limits on USA’s “demand side.” There actually seems to be a taste for that discussion in policy circles right now in the United States.


—Mike


--
Mike Godwin | Senior Legal Advisor, Global Internet Policy Project
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Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 9:45 PM
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Subject: Re: [bestbits] Reform surveillance

Let's just not forget that this isn't just a question of whether governments can get personal information,  it is a question of how much it costs to get that data. Governments could always invest heavily in surveillance if they wanted to. The relevant question in the digital age is whether commercial practices are making it too easy and cheap for governments. And whether those commercial interests can pursue profit without unduly jeopardizing their customers' privacy.






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