[Zikes]

The FBI "could" track your movements via cell phone data. The FBI "could" then provide that data to the DEA to help make an arrest. The NSA "could" keep a log of everyone you ever call or who calls you.

Not that we should have ever cared about those possibilities until they came to light, leaving us scrambling to cope with the consequences and attempt to repair the damage after the fact.

[diminoten]

Arrests are allowed to happen to innocent people. Arrests aren't convictions, convictions are.

People still get trials. They still get due process. If the DEA/FBI can't provide evidence to the state/federal prosecutor such that a person is found guilty of a crime by a jury of his peers, then a person does not get convicted.

You're saying the government is committing thought-crime. Just because a person owns a gun doesn't mean they're going to kill their neighbor, and just because the FBI/CIA/NSA/Local PD "could" abuse its power, does not mean they "do".

[RHSeeger]

Of course, the recent revelations that they "do" does mean they "do".

[diminoten]

What revelations that they do? So far all revelations have been surveillance related, and not arrest and conviction related.

No one's been provably put to jail because of the NSA's programs.

[jlgreco]

I guess you were asleep during the "parallel construction" revelations.