Big Brother's Listening to YOU

Here's the skinny on the NSA spying program from the AT&T wistle-blower who helped install the wire taps:

Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet -- whether that be peoples' e-mail, web surfing or any other data.

Given the public debate about the constitutionality of the Bush administration's spying on U.S. citizens without obtaining a FISA warrant, I think it is critical that this information be brought out into the open, and that the American people be told the truth about the extent of the administration's warrantless surveillance practices, particularly as it relates to the internet.

Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA. And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.

In fact, as it turns out, it appears they've been listening to literally everything that goes over the phone or the internet.

Sometime ago, I downloaded proxy-server software to make my surfing anonymous, but it slowed things down so much (and, since the proxy servers were in Germany, it often caused Google searches to come back in German) I have pretty much stopped using it. In any event, I doubt even that strategy would be safe from this kind of surveillance.