[felisGoodman]

If the NSA can request data on 'suspects' at will from Google, how is that functionally different from a dragnet? Arbitrary data could be collected via phone records, then email/user data could be requested from Google/Facebook based on 'suspicious activity'.

I bet that the bombshell disclosure will be that these 'proper legal warrants' are actually just arbitrary requests justified via the Patriot Act or similar.

[cromwellian]

I don't know what the official definition of dragnet is, but when PRISM first came out, the hyperbolic, dramatic media interpretation was that of a firehose -- NSA gets a feed of everyone's data and can search it at will.

Now the scenario is: They must obtain NSL/FISA orders, Google reviews them, then the data on their target is released.

Is that a dragnet? What if when Google wins the right to publish statistics on NSL/FISA requests, it turns out to be just a few hundred per year, or less than regular search warrants, like when a guy is suspected of killing his wife.

Would that change your opinion? It seems that the pitchforks came out on the original WashPo/Guardian scenario, and if that turns out to be wrong, people will keep moving the goal posts and not put the pitchforks away.

Some people just want to believe that the tech companies are greedy, unscrupulous, entities.

[eightyone]

I wonder why Greenwald and the Guardian haven't released more information yet. Maybe they are waiting for all the tech news to die down? Are there any other major things happening this week?