There’s a lot of controversy over recent revelations that the National Security Agency is logging and retaining metadata on every single phone call, email, and web visit. But President Obama tells us that, “No one is listening to your phone calls.” And ranking members of Congress assure us that everything is being overseen by a federal court. So what’s all the fuss about?
Well, two things. First, the court they’re talking about is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (usually referred to as the “FISA” court or “FISC”). Most knowledgeable people consider it a “rubber-stamp” court that approves whatever the intelligence services want. This was confirmed by an April 30 letter from the Justice Department to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid which said in part: “Of the 1,789 applications [in 2012], the FISC did not deny any applications in whole or in part.” Hmmmmmm.
The second issue is that the law allows government intelligence agencies to collect “metadata” without a warrant or court approval (not even the FISA court). “Metadata” is, for example, the phone number a call was placed from (which tells them who made the call), the number (and therefore who) the call was made to, and how long it lasted. Metadata also includes the email address a message was sent from, the address it was sent to, and (possibly) the subject line. Same for text messages. Same for websites. Same for web purchases. Well, so what? Who cares?
Well, lots of us actually. Most people have secrets they want kept secret. Mostly about sex or money, not terrorism or crime. As an example, let’s consider sex. What kind of secrets concerning sex might someone have? An affair they’re keeping secret from their spouse. Regular calls to the “HotSweatySex” phone line. Online purchase of sex-related products. Visits to a pornography website. Communications with a VD clinic or a licensed sexual therapist. Communications with a law firm specializing in employer sexual harassment cases. Membership in a kinky-sex club. Appointments with an abortion clinic. The existence of an unacknowledged child. And so it goes.
Metadata does not reveal the content of phone calls or email messages, but it does reveal patterns, and patterns reveal all. “Happily-married Joe” makes multiple calls each day to “Sweet Sue” (not his wife), what does that tell you? Congresswoman Majora Moralista is a regular customer of the Good Vibrations online store, what would her constituents think?
Now government agencies have all this data revealing all these personal patterns. Can a prosecutor subpoena them? What about a divorce attorney? Might State’s Attorney Nogoodnick who’s in a tight re-election race ask his agency buddies for some inside dope on his opponent? What do you think will happen when an investigative reporter discovers waste, fraud, and malfeasance in a government agency, but that agency has access to salacious and damaging info about the reporter’s publisher? There’s a long and sordid history of American police and intelligence agencies leaking private information for political purposes such as discrediting a critic, or threatening to do so unless whomever agrees to do whatever. Now all this pattern info is just a few tempting keystrokes away. And not just in the Obama administration, but in all future administrations to come. The Bush II administration outed a CIA agent to retaliate against her husband for publicly disputing their rationale for invading Iraq, what will the next administration do with the personal secrets of everyone they come into contact with?
Fortunately, on the bright side, we know that the honor and honesty of every single person in government is absolutely above reproach. So of course we can be thankfully confidant that none of the hundreds (thousands?) of bureaucrats with access to this pattern-revealing metadata would ever download any of it for personal gain through blackmail, or insider trading, or career advancement, or just personal titillation. And I’m sure that all the employees of private defense contractors and security consultants who also have access are of equally high moral character. But I do sort of worry about hackers. If they can hack into the Air Force computers, what can’t they hack in to?
But our President and Congressional leaders assure us no one is listening to our calls or reading our emails (unless the FISA court permits them to), so what’s all the fuss about?
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