http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/occams-corner/2013/jul/03/1 Revelations that GCHQ and the NSA have tapped into the internet on a huge scale have rightly provoked outrage. But intelligence analysts aren't the only ones likely to be tempted by the captured information. The internet has transformed our relationship with information – and with the world – in ways that continue to surprise us. That may appear to many readers, especially those below the age of thirty, as a statement of the blindingly obvious but I think it can bear repetition. The latest evidence for the transformative power of the web comes from the explosion of outrage detonated by Edward Snowden's revelations that the NSA and GCHQ have been tapping into online activity on an unprecedented scale and with little apparent legal, congressional or parliamentary oversight. read more: http://www.good.is/abney-associates http://syosset.patch.com/blogs/abney-associates-cottoncandz01

1. Bringing internet snooping to book
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2. Revelations that GCHQ and the NSA have tapped into the
internet on a huge scale have rightly provoked outrage.
But intelligence analysts aren't the only ones likely to be
tempted by the captured information.
The internet has transformed our relationship with
information – and with the world – in ways that continue to
surprise us. That may appear to many readers, especially
those below the age of thirty, as a statement of the
blindingly obvious but I think it can bear repetition.
The latest evidence for the transformative power of the
web comes from the explosion of outrage detonated by
Edward Snowden's revelations that the NSA and GCHQ
have been tapping into online activity on an
unprecedented scale and with little apparent
legal, congressional or parliamentary oversight.

3. The extent of the snooping, which has targeted friend
and foe alike, has upset many. Our allies in Germany and France
are furious; Noam Chomsky is alarmed; the founding fathers of
the "land of the free" are reportedly spinning in their graves; and
John Kampfner has sounded a grim warning about the further
erosion of the West's moral authority over more draconian
regimes. Even senior staff at MI5 think that GCHQ may have
gone too far.
Among the general population the reaction appears
more mixed. There is disquiet certainly but a significant fraction of
the population - almost half in the US – has shrugged off the
snooping. Perhaps primed by powerful fictional accounts of
electronic espionage in TV shows such as Spooks or Homeland or
the Bourne films, many of us have long presumed that we are
under surveillance and so were unsurprised at the news. I suspect
also that a generation happy to splurge the minutiae of their lives
over Facebook and Twitter is less likely to be concerned that
personal information is up for grabs by the government.

4. We should not be so blasé. Privacy is a precious commodity. Its
commercial value emerged clearly, if grubbily, from the
accounts of intrusive journalism unearthed by the Leveson
Inquiry. But how far does the state have the right to track our
private lives, even if it is in the pursuit of our rather ill-defined
national and economic interests? Most would agree that the
state has some business monitoring internet traffic, to sniff out
trails of criminal or terrorist activity, and there are plausible
sounding reassurances that valuable intelligence has been
obtained in this way (though it is hard to test such claims).
However, we still need to be wary of our guardians. Our police
forces have shown a cavalier disregard for the law when it
comes to gathering information on environmentalists, or the
families of murder victims or when cosying up to the press for
cash. How can we ensure that our intelligence analysts operate
to higher standards, now that we have discovered them to be
siphoning enormous torrents of information from our computers
into theirs?