10 Things Americans Underestimate About Our Massive Surveillance State
Steven Rosenfeld
Americans may be upset about the latest revelations in the government’s ability to spy on citizens via their online lives, but no one should be surprised. We've underestimated and overlooked many key aspects of the government’s ability to track our lives for years.
Obama's comments were not reassuring, because they lacked details about what's going on. The NSA’s electronic dragnet was created after the September 11 , 2001 attacks. Is al-Qaeda a big threat anymore? Or is the bigger threat how the Chinese government hacked into the security systems that supposedly protected US weapons systems and stole all the blueprints to the most advanced technology? Americans hear all about the continuing threat of al-Qaeda and very little about the much bigger Chinese intelligence coup.