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Comment by studentrob | Hacker News Reader

That's their prerogative.

The public, though, is largely against these mass surveillance programs, and should be informed from the horse's mouth exactly what they are.

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden said last year that he was glad to see that as a result of the Snowden leaks the NSA only lost ease of access to their small 215 program, and didn't even lose the program entirely [1]

Mass surveillance and our right to privacy need to become election issues if any of this is ever to change.

[1] https://theintercept.com/2015/06/17/hayden-mocks-extent-post...

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Even if it does become an election issues, we know the Dems are for it and from tonights Republican debate and their stance on Apple, I'm pretty sure its safe to say they also support the NSA surveillance initiatives. Anything justified as "protection from terrorists" will be supported by the government and sadly by most US citizens.

> from tonights Republican debate and their stance on Apple, I'm pretty sure its safe to say they also support the NSA surveillance initiatives. Anything justified as "protection from terrorists" will be supported by the government and sadly by most US citizens.

Was there any doubt? One of the core pillars of the Republican party is massive defense spending while the party's opinion on Snowden is not exactly favorable (to say the least). Furthermore, a current Rubio ad is literally claiming we will enter into the Apocalypse (due to terrorism and economic collapse) if he isn't elected as the GOP nominee.

Are you saying the population is largely in favor of mass surveillance? Americans say otherwise in this poll,

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/18/us-voters-bro...

> The public, though, is largely against these mass surveillance programs

Really? That's not my impression. I remember after September 11 - most Americans seemed more than happy to give up their freedoms and privacy in order to fight terrorism. And didn't most of the politicians that enacted the Patriot Act get re-elected? Bush certainly did. I often get the impression that most people think surveillance is ok because "they have nothing to hide" (they don't seem to think further than that).

Has there been any opinion polls on mass surveillance? Anybody got links?

More than three-quarters of likely voters the poll interviewed opposed related aspects of current surveillance authorities and operations. Eighty-two percent are “concerned” about government collection and retention of their personal data. Eighty-three percent are concerned about government access to data stored by businesses without judicial orders, and 84% want the same judicial protections on their virtual data as exist for physical records on their property. The same percentage is concerned about government use of that data for non-counter-terrorism purposes.

“Consensus on this issue is bipartisan,” said Strimple.

“There’s real concern about what the government’s accessing about your personal life.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/18/us-voters-bro...

Also he's not in jail. So he's probably pretty stoked about that, too.

Election issues aren't what you probably think they are... You probably have it backwards in your head. An anachronism left over from when we all still believed the 4th estate of news media existed to educate the electorate. Everything about "election issues" is jerrymandered and bought and paid for.

What I think you mean, in a modern context, is "Our right to privacy needs to the straw man for a number of groups whose continued income and existence is directly tied to a certain point of view. They need to be large enough and wealthy enough to lobby this point of view on my behalf using tools such as PACs, PR releases to news media, and polls designed to prove the issue can be leveraged for the purpose of electing a candidate."

No, I'm saying that a majority of the voting public is against mass surveillance,

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/18/us-voters-bro...

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