[DanBC]

People seem to get really angry if you suggest that NSA surveillance is less important than Facebook/Google/etc privacy violation, even though very many people have experienced negative consequences of Facebook/Google/etc privacy violations.

[randallsquared]

I think that there's a widespread sense (which I intuitively share) that Facebook/Google/etc only get information about us because we or someone we know freely give it to them. NSA surveillance is different in at least two ways: first, we don't voluntarily give them the information, which makes their use of that information inherently antagonistic towards us (hence the fourth amendment to the US Constitution); and second (for Americans), there's an understanding that the NSA was specifically instructed by Congress to not spy domestically (presumably due to that fourth amendment thing, again).

[DanBC]

I agree that spying on your citizens should be illegal and any organisations doing it should stop.

But then GCHQ has a big bunch of data that they rarely access under (we're told) strict controls. So, I'm less bothered by the gathering of that data than other people. I would be angry if GCHQ started grepping it for stuff that isn't nationally important.

[Loughla]

That's true, and I've never really understood it. Most people get worked up because the NSA is accessing gigantic data-warehouses; they're not upset that these warehouses exist in the first place, or even question the original purpose of the collections.

I genuinely don't understand that.