I read about the NSA collecting all kinds of information and the lack of oversight.
I heard about the US government spying on people all over the world.
I saw interviews of people stating that information from my phone provider, my social media provider and my email provider is or can be collected by the government.
The outrage is massive.
Everyone is shocked.
People are surprised.
I am not. In fact the only thing that really surprises me is that anyone is surprised about all this. More often than not, I wonder if I am alone with my point of view.
Below I will outline what this point of view is and maybe you can help me to understand what I am seeing wrong...
I grew up in Austria at a time when computers used to be as big as entire rooms. There was no such thing as the internet and email. But things changed over time. We all got more connected, our lives extended into cyberspace and now my 600$ phone has a thousand times more processing power than my first 10,000$ computer.
Times change.
What also changed is the way I consume and create content. While back in the old days, I shared things with my friends by sitting in front of my computer with them and later by sending it via email, today all I do is post stuff online and allow the world to have a look at my life.
I got used to the fact that more and more people have the ability to learn more and more about me by using the internet and social networks.
Over time I even got used to receiving personalized advertisement based on my online data. I got used to all this and I am fully aware that my data is not really safe at all as soon as it is online.
This is just the way things seem to be nowadays.
So what has all this to do with the government spying on me and my lack of surprise?
Well, when I came to the US back in 2008, I was surprised by the amount of personal data I had to provide in order to obtain a work visa. 9/11 changed a lot and I understood that the government had to be more careful about who to allow to live in this country.
I get all that.
When I started my immigration process, I had to provide even more personal information. I got fingerprinted, I had a health check (for some reason it does not seem to be a problem to live here for several years, but as soon as you want to immigrate, you are being evaluated to make sure you are not a risk for the health of Americans), and I had to provide information covering pretty much my entire life.
I am as transparent as it gets.
None of the above surprised me.
I knew that there was a thing called the Patriot Act and I knew that things have changed. I also knew that the Patriot Act served as an excuse for many things. It was implemented at times of fear and panic and it did not change over time. The simple fact that I knew about the Patriot Act explains why I am not surprised by our government (since June 1st, I am a permanent resident, so now it really is OUR government, no longer yours alone :)) spying on me.
I am surprised that it took people so long to realize what is happening.
Look at your everyday life. How often do you provide personal information to cable providers, phone companies, software vendors... Have you ever read the privacy policies in detail or have you ever read the terms of service line by line?
Of course not.
If you are anything like the vast majority of people you scroll to the end and click "OK". And therefore most likely allow your data to be shared.
Corporate America has a massive amount of data about you and me.
Corporate America is controlling our politicians, thanks to Citizens United.
Corporate America knows that using your data is of big advantage for them to "control" you by specifically targeting you with ads on a very personal level.
So why would politicians, bought by Corporate America, not realize the benefit of using the data already collected to their advantage?
All this is not surprising to me.
The only thing missing was a way for the government to get hands on all this data.
Thank God, we have the Patriot Act!
I am by no means the brightest bulb on the shelf, but even to me it was pretty obvious that all the above pretty much leads to one conclusion:
The government is more likely than not spying on me by collecting all sorts of data.
I concluded this 4 years ago and I came to the same conclusion last month. The only thing that changed is that now I have the confirmation.
It might have helped to prevent terror attacks, but I am not sure if that could not have been done by other means.
And this is why I am not surprised. I am not outraged.
Do I think it is right? - Absolutely not. But surprised? Not at all.
No violation of my right to privacy by our government will surprise me as long as:
- Money rules politics
- The Patriot Act is in effect
- Politicians care more about their job than about America
- Our leaders use the "war on terror" and replace the term "terror" with whatever fits their purpose to scare people and justify whatever they want to do
And this is why I am not surprised at all.
As a permanent resident I am not allowed to vote, so I can not actively try to change the points mentioned above. But I can talk about it.
Maybe my point of view is not so wrong after all...
Maybe we just need to look at the cause instead of being surprised and outraged by the symptoms.
I don't know, you tell me...
P.S.: I am just putting my point of view out there. I am not a pro in writing diaries, as so many of you. Don't be too harsh on me, but certainly don't hold back on telling me if I am way of with how I see things. after all, I am still a newbie here... on KOS and in America.