I'm shocked more people aren't totally upset about this issue. I, quite frankly, think this is ridiculous. I'm appauled. Whatever happened to our 4th amendment rights? Are we sure the 4th amendment even exists?
So maybe technically they can get away with this, I don't know that for sure, but that's not the point. The point is that the federal government is getting away with collecting personal information on it's own law-abiding, private citizens.
If I'm not breaking the law, or there isn't a reasonable suspicion that I am, there is no reason whatsoever for the federal government to be collecting personal information about me, such as who I'm calling, who's calling me, where I am, what websites I view, etc, etc. Where does this end?
As the saying goes, "all that evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
So maybe you aren't breaking the law, and you "have nothing to hide." As long as you have nothing to hide, are you willing to do a strip search at every public location? C'mon, you're not hiding any weapons, so you might as well comply. Right?
I honestly do not think that violating law-abiding citizens' rights (or what used to be considered rights) is the way to "protect" us. Quite frankly, I'd much rather live with freedom, liberty, and privacy, even if it means that I'm more likely to die a bit earlier.
It deeply bothers me that our civil liberties are being erroded so severely. And for what? Has it really made a difference? We'd like to think that giving up our civil liberties has had some purpose, perhaps saved some lives, but how do we know that?