I usually agree with you fully on just about everything you have written
about here, but this is not one of them. I see major differences
between your Baltimore scenario and this. Firstly, the nature of spying
vs. police work, the first being to ostensibly prevent crime/terrorism
and the second being to catch a criminal once we are pretty sure a crime
has happened. The needs are then very different, ongoing surveillance
vs info needed for a particular case. The second is obviously the
scope. ‘People using payphones in Baltimore for the period of the
investiagtion’ is obviously a much smaller group than ‘anyone using a
cell phone/social media site in America from here to eternity’. It’s
the ongoing and blanket nature of the surveillance that I think has many
people concerned. Next, I’m not sure why you appear to be trusting the
very same people at their word regarding the scope of PRISM who were
hiding this program in the first place. I am right with you in a
complete lack of surprise that this was going on after the Patriot act
but the reality here is a little jolting.
