The NSA’s Wretched Reasons

The latest revelations of our times’ greatest digital scandal arrive at the editorial office in a padded envelope, neatly stamped with fourteen crown stamps. Not a line from the transcript of Glenn Greenwald’s “No Place to Hide” has been sent by email. It is hardly likely for marketing reasons that the project was held under the digital radar before the launch of the book in 25 countries yesterday.

In addition to talking about how he — with the help of the informant, Edward Snowden — revealed the NSA’s mass surveillance of data traffic, Greenwald presents 56 new NSA documents. According to these, both the monitoring and the ambitions are more comprehensive than previously known. “The goal of the NSA … is to ensure that there could be no human communications that occur electronically, that evade their surveillance net,” writes Greenwald. The documents also show that the NSA are near to reaching their goal — a solution to even surveil the web surfing occurring in flight cabins has been filed.

Even more remarkable is the data on how American-made web equipment is routinely seized by the NSA and retrofitted with mechanisms for monitoring before they are sent to buyers abroad. A democratic country conducting intelligence operations with the aim of self-preservation is nothing strange in itself. What is distressing is its extent and the near zero threshold required to initiate reconnaissance operations. The NSA’s only qualm in this situation seems to be the cost of storing all the information.

And personal privacy?

The NSA appears to reason like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt:

“If you have something you do not want the authorities to know, maybe you should not deal with it at all.”

An attitude which is grotesque.

It is enough that the Internet and social media have made many shift the line between public and private — there is just as much value in allowing the individual to choose where the line should be drawn. To restrict this right requires a very good reason. The NSA seems to conduct mass surveillance with a wretched reason: just because they can.