I Don’t Like Snooping

Big news Monday afternoon from Washington. A federal judge took a harsh stand against the NSA spyworks.

A federal district judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, describing its technology as “almost Orwellian” and suggesting that James Madison would be “aghast” to learn that the government was encroaching on liberty in such a way. NY Times

That’s really strong language. It’s the first pushback against the NSA’s techniques with the power to make them stop. It will be appealed.

The whole culture of data collection has depersonalized society. So much of what was once done by human is now done by machine. Mistakes are made. Corrections, less often.

I don’t want to be defined by the sum of my computer noticed actions. There are nuances machines can’t catch. There are things only humans see.

We are exceptionally complex.

Define people through algorithms and data points and some part of us disappears. We are being modeled on a coarse grid. How is that good?

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