If US is monitoring her own citizen, how do we know that US did not action on those information they obtained?
Obviously the US/NSA state machine is far more organized, experienced, technologically capable and pervasive then anyone else when it comes to monitoring threat from within US.
Government would definitely action whenever they deem threat to be eminently realistic.
If Naom Chomsky is suspected to be funded and sponsored by foreign governmental organization determined for regime change in US and the threat he poses is deem realistic enough, I am sure he would be denigrated, smeared by the MSM, hollywood and social media or prosecuted by some trump-up rape or tax evasion charges and if that doesn't work, he would be "disappeared" faster than you can imagine.
Believing that US is somehow "holier" than anyone else is just naive.
- Morality
- Ethics
- Legality
While morality sets the foundation for ethical behaviors and laws, morality and ethics are closer to each other than they are to laws.
Morality says: Do not lie.
Ethics says: You can lie under certain circumstances, like hiding Jews from the Nazis, for example. On the other hand, it is debatable about lying about your ugly tie that you received on Father's Day.
Legality says: Lie and you will be tangibly punished. Tangibly means financial levy or even prison.
Is data collection immoral? If the answer is 'Yes', then each one of us is a sinner. If you remember that your cousin cheats at cards and did not returned what was lent, then you are an immoral person. This argument is clearly absurd. If a supermarket collects data and found out that frozen pizzas consistently out sell other frozen food, it is eminently common sense and profitable to cater to its customers by stocking more frozen pizzas. Cellular phone providers must collect data in order to have true and honest billings. Credit rating agencies collects data from individuals to entire countries. Data collection happens all the time, from the personal level to the impersonal corporate level.
Let us take these 3 laws:
- It is illegal to be left handed.
- It is illegal to do anything with the left hand.
- It is illegal to be left handed and do things with the left hand the same way right handed people do with their right hands.
Law 1 have nothing to do with what you do but what you
ARE. If you admit to the police that you are left handed, you will be imprisoned. So all you have to do is lie and live as if you are right handed.
Law 2 would punish anyone done anything with the left hand, even if it is in assistance with the right hand when common sense dictate. It is a badly written law and such badly written laws do occurs.
Law 3 is more specific. A person can admit to being left handed but as long as he live as a right handed person, he will not be punished. Note the 'and' here.
Both the NSA and Google have not done anything criminal.
HAVE NOT. There is no law that blanketly says data collection is illegal. What make data collection problematic in some cases is first the agency involved, then what that agency intends to do with all that information. There can be laws that narrowly restrict what kind of data can be collected, by whom, and for how long. Police departments do this all the time against organized crime. When a judge permit it, that permission is
de facto a short live law.
The NSA does not provide any public utility. What it does must be analyzed in the context of morality, ethics, and legality as explained above. Is either Google or Verizon legally obligated to provide data to the NSA when requested? No. Either company must be legally compelled to do so. If either voluntarily complied then it is a matter of morality and ethics, not legality.