{The billions spent on collecting and combing the data is, for the most, part of the CYA program supported by nearly all elected politicians in nearly all countries. They support the spying programs so they can tell the people voting for them – “We are spending billions protecting you with the latest technology and brightest minds available.” If any useful information in collected – woohoo! but neither the politicians or we who vote for them care – we just want to know that the money is being spent and we hope it does some good. In short, shame on them and shame on us!}
Current and former government officials have been pointing to the terror attacks in Paris as justification for mass surveillance programs. CIA Director John Brennan accused privacy advocates of “hand-wringing” that has made “our ability collectively internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging.” Former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden said, “In the wake of Paris, a big stack of metadata doesn’t seem to be the scariest thing in the room.”Ultimately, it’s impossible to know just how successful sweeping surveillance has been, since much of the work is secret. But what has been disclosed so far suggests the programs have been of limited value.










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