The FISA court oversees the program and allows it to proceed, the same court that Bush bypassed during which time Americans were all by totally silent.

Has it occurred to anybody this whole thing is a intelligence ruse? A high school dropout working as a guard for the CIA and somehow ends up with an intelligence-gathering job at $200k a year. Then he throws it all away to reveal a "secret" program that anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention knows has been going on for 7 years now. A program that is completely legal.    And his "pole dancer" girlfriend whose writings on this subject read like Elizabeth Barrett-Browning on acid and meth. It's a bit much, one must admit.

Maybe it's all too take our minds off the fact that he already gave our privacy away the day we decide to go online. I was visiting another site where you type in a person's name and the state where they reside and up comes their police record, city of residence, spouses, siblings, parents, in-laws. They even list other cities where a person may have resided for a short time. Another website lists your house and property and how much you paid for it and how long you've had it and whether or not you're in the market to sell it. Am I worried about the govt getting this info? No, they can get that info anytime they damn well please. But I do worry about crooks, cons and weirdos getting it. And I hope you don't get apps on your phone that require them knowing where you are so they can beam them to you because anybody can tune in and know exactly where you are at that moment.

It's not that the government has access to my info, it's that ANYBODY has access to it who wants it and I can't do a damned thing about it. And neither can you.

So while you're wrapping yourselves in tin foil to protect yourself from the evil government top secret eavesdropping rays they beam at you 24/7, you better watch out who is sneaking in the backdoor.