If a computer records millions of telephone conversations in America... its not invasion of privacy?
Why do people think that recording a telephone conversation and it being translated to a text file is not a "wiretap"?
Update:*Conversation over sees, includes internet based phone systems who have servers abroad... Or satelites which may have been leased to overseas companies.
Also "over seas" such as using phone services of a company who is out of US territory to avoid taxes?
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What is invasion of privacy? If a conversation of yours exist in digital audio form, or in text form, and it has not been viewed or listened to by a human operator, ever, has your privacy been violated? Think about it: no human is privy to the contents of your conversation, yet. I would argue that no, your rights have not yet been violated. Imagine, same scenario, your conversation is observed, but you are not identified yet. The person is listening to / reading a conversation from one of 300 million random Americans. Has your privacy been violated yet? Again, I argue no, the listener does not know who you are. Let's go to the extreme: someone listens to your conversation and knows who you are, where you live, etc... OK, this is a violation of privacy, but who cares? That might sound dumb, but if someone wants to listen to my pointless phone conversations, be my guest. I will probably never meet the person who listened to what I said in my life, nor will them knowing about what I say on the phone affect my life. This very well may have happened to me (or you) and we don't know about it, and probably never will. At the same time, any terrorists that want to use phones for this purpose are either unable to, or risk being caught.
In all cases, they are wiretaps. Anytime you copy data to another source as it transmits through some medium (a wire, the internet, wirelessly) is a wiretap. What I dispute is the actual moment your privacy has been violated.
You pick:
1. The US government monitors suspected terrorist conversations overseas and tries to stop attacks before they happen.
2. The US government grants suspected terrorists complete privacy, and they blow you up as a result of their ability to plan and coordinate an attack.
Lastly: Have you ever considered the manpower necessary to monitor "millions" of telephone conversations at once?
It's not possible.
They really are focused on the perceived threats, and don't care about your call to aunt Matilda.
Where did you get your information that millions of telephone coversations are being recorded in America? Serious question - if you could add it to the details section up there I'm sure you could get better responses...
**Could you please cite your source??