Quote Originally Posted by maxmixiv View Post
Listening to traffic is Okay in my opinion. Of course, until the collected data are used to harm honest citizens. Like when chief of the police is the major criminal of district.

Launching network attacks on the other hand is harmful and is a crime.
Well obviously nobody minds if they prevent a terrorist attack.

But at what price? And when will they start using it for other purposes? And even for those who trust their government; you don't know who'll be ruling the country in 5 years. It might be someone who wants to go after people precisely like you. And thanks to PRISM and similar programs they already have people's confessions, in their own words. Or the infrastructure to find out anyone's thoughts on anything they care to mention online.

Another perspective is that things like that are bound to get out of hand. First they look for terrorists, then for pedophiles... then for pirates...... economic criminal, industrial espionage, then ANYONE who somebody doesn't like.

Do you think it was okay that people's letters where opened and read at various points in Russia's past as well?
I don't see how this is any different. I think this is a principle and it doesn't matter who does it, or what they say their reasons are. It shouldn't be done!

But thanks to Edward Snowden, at least now we know it's going on as a matter of routine, in Western democracies.

And no, I've never really used Facebook, precisely because I don't want all my personal data in one location like that. Got an account but it's got hardly no info and I never enjoyed using it.