Don't Tap Me, Bro!

Glenn Greenwald got a "scoop" from one of his loyal readers...make that a few scoops. Whether he will continue his "drip, drip" strategy or opt for a "dump", Glenn has some shiny objects to share. He's been "working" on this scoop for about 2 months, but he's been an activist for much longer than that. While the Media has quickly toned down interest and the NSA is reclassified as a sideshow, I'm having a difficult time with moving on to more important issues. I keep hearing the words my good "virtual friend" Karoli would often tweet, "This is why we can't have nice things".

When the news of a 7 year old NSA program "broke", I literally reacted with "Well, duh". To my dismay, I witnessed good people I had long assumed were at least borderline tech-savvy, lose their collective shit. For many, "metadata" had an entirely new meaning..."Monster Data". Data so huge, so intrusive, so personal, so everything awful that the last straw had been pulled and the proverbial camel's back had not only been broken, but doused in jet fuel, burned into ash and thrown violently into a garbage heap along with our freedom, liberty and the US Constitution.

Regarding motivations, ideologies and personalities, I'll leave that for another time and place. Regarding the legality, constitutionality or morality, I'm not here to denounce or pronounce the NSA tactics. What I cannot shake is the concern that the issue of "data collection" and storage will fade once again into the ether as politicos rush to sweep the Patriot Act, the NSA and the difficult questions raised off the front page. The internet and the cell phone are many "things" to each one of us, but most of all they are "digital". They are "data". And we share a LOT of data. Sometimes we are offered a special "secure" web page to share our data, but most often we are not. There's a reason. And you know what I find most surprising in all of this hair-lighting outrage? No one has bothered to ask why ALL web pages are not "Secure". I won't be surprised when they understand why and only then can we move forward with an adult conversation about metadata, national security, privacy and the lifestyle choices we all have to make.