It's really sad that people claim obama is worse than bush on civil liberties.
Under Bush, the NSA ran a warrantless wiretapping program, where they could, without a warrant, view the contents of anyone's emails, listen in on any of their phone calls, and view the contents of all of their text messages, without a warrant. It ran from 2001 to 2007 and was closed under public pressure. It was part of a broader range of completely un-regulated surveillance policies, known as the President's Surveillance Program. After 2007, oversight of such programs was returned to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, AKA the FISA Court). I'm not talking about basic information like who called what numbers (this is all information your telecoms and ISPs have access to and can sell and use freely with anyone they please.). I'm talking stuff like knowing that on March 2, 2005, George called Sally and told her, quote, "I am a porcupine," then using this to self-authorize a 5150 hold on George. Actual, unregulated, spying.
Do you know what happened next?
I'll tell you what happened. In 2007 and 2008, Congress relaxed the FISA court's oversight, and expanded surveillance programs, including authorizing PRISM, by passing the Protect America Act of 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
And once again, Congress renewed these programs for 5 years (through 2017) back in 2012.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 specifically authorizes such activity. It declares that the executive branch become one of the 3rd party customers of such telecoms and ISPs, essentially.
So no, it's not the Executive Branch you need to be upset with. It's the legislative branch for authorizing such programs and relaxing oversights (Keep in mind that every single federal court in the country, except for the Supreme Court, is an extension of Congress. Congress establishes such courts through legislation and dictates their rules, management, funding, and operations. They also do this for federal agencies under the executive branch, as well.)
Congress tells the executive branch what to do and how to do it, and they tell the executive branch who will be in charge of the various agencies and departments they tell the executive branch to keep operational, and they create the courts and tell the executive branch what powers the courts will have in relation to them, and who will run the courts.
It all goes back to Congress. And the telecoms who force you to surrender certain information to them for use as they see fit.
My landlord, unless there is an emergency or reasonable suspicion of a crime, can not come into my apartment without giving me at least 24 hours notice, and they own the damn thing. that's the terms they dictated. Does your ISP give you the luxury of knowing who they sell your information to, or what they use your email metadata for, or even notification of when they'll access such information, even though you're "renting" their lines just like how a tenant rents an apartment from a landlord? Nope.
And now we get into the REALLY fun domain, where a government can't compel you to give up certain information, but a corporation can, and the bastardization of consumer rights, corporate lobbying, etc...
