I am not a big fan of America spying on Americans

Open thread for night owls: Snowden, Clapper, and the Chamber of Commerce (Click on this heading to read more)

Rss@dailykos.com (hunter)
Tuesday, February 25, 2014, 11:50 pm
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    [H]ere is Clapper telling the truth: Despite regarding Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden as having done grave damage to the United States with their data thefts, he can't guarantee the same thing won't happen again. And if a future whistleblower could gain access to the most sensitive data, so could a blackmailer.
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    So could a foreign spy.
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    Data retention of this sort, whether carried out by the NSA or telecoms, poses a grave threat to privacy, in part because neither the NSA nor the telecoms can guarantee that the highly sensitive information they collect on us won't be stolen. "To this day," Lake writes, "the U.S. government doesn't know the full extent of what Snowden revealed or whether more documents that have yet to be published in the press have made their way into the hands of Russian or Chinese intelligence."
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    But they expect us to keep trusting them with our data. Why?

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Digby reminds us that the same defense contractors helping the government collect invasive data have had little compunction against using their wares for private espionage and propaganda efforts, such as the previously exposed Chamber of Commerce plan to infiltrate and sabotage unions and activist groups using Palantir-backed espionage, hacking efforts and planted disinformation:
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    Yes, a foreign spy could get access. Or a blackmailer. Or the Chamber of Commerce! They already tried! And when it was revealed that they wanted to ratfuck left wing activist groups, nobody gave a damn. (Meanwhile, the right wing is still crying victimhood over an IRS program that targeted both left and right...)
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    If they could give us even one good reason beyond "because we can" and "maybe we might find it useful some day" perhaps people would be less alarmed. But when you have documented misuse of the data by private organizations, documented plans to use propaganda and dirty tricks to discredit dissenters along with not even one example of how these programs have been helpful, it's just beyond my ken as to why people are still defending the government's ongoing insistence that this is perfectly above board.