Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a piece detailing the extensive program of data sweeping and data mining that is presently being conducted by the NSA:

According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called “transactional” data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns

Naturally, this sort of practice runs smack-dab against a variety of privacy concerns, not least among them the 4th Amendment, which serves to protect Americans from unreasonable search and seizure and requires particularization - which is intended to curtail broad information dragnets.

Others have commented on the creeping totalitarianism inherent in this program as well as the nature of the “surveillance society” - two very important issues. And largely these are solid positions and concerns. It’s not chicken-little scare mongering. The programs are here. Now.

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