[mtoddh]

From the article:

"The defense of this practice offered by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is supposed to be preventing this sort of overreaching, was absurd. She said today that the authorities need this information in case someone might become a terrorist in the future."

That second sentence is the one that really caught my eye:

She said today that the authorities need this information in case someone might become a terrorist in the future.

Wow. Just wow.

[khuey]

Feinstein is one of the worst people in the Senate on civil liberties issues, and one of the foremost advocates of the national security state.

[ericd]

Ugh, I think I voted for her. :-( When is she up for reelection?

[khuey]

2018. But it's exceedingly unlikely that she has a realistic challenger in either the primary or the general elections.

[yahelc]

She'll be 85 in 2018. There's a decent chance she'll retire.

[rhizome]

My pennies are on California AG Kamala Harris being groomed for the same role and purpose.

[flyinRyan]

There's a decent chance she'll die before then (of old age). Even better.

[NIL8]

At least you're honest.

:)

[grappler]

Feinstein's constituency is Silicon Valley. And while we know all about the Google/Facebook/Apple/Y-Combinator silicon valley, there's also that other Silicon Valley.

http://vimeo.com/15992737

[drawkbox]

If terrorists hate our freedom, then maybe this data collection shows Dianne Feinstein to be a terrorist. We need to access her information. I am sure she has nothing to hide.

[f1nch3r]

Precrime. Minority Report becomes more real every day.

[rhizome]

It's not even Precrime, more like Maybecrime.

[grn]

A little generalisation of her reasoning may lead to a conclusion that we should collect data on everyone since birth in case he becomes a criminal. It's scary.

[plusbryan]

Also convenient when we change our definition of "terrorist" and can reexamine the evidence with new eyes...

[Shivetya]

worry not about that, but whatever in the future they decide are crimes warranting the use of this information. When they decide that is serves the purpose of the government to track tax issues this way, child support, or even political donations. The real future threat is that they don't seem to have limits of retention in place.