Here I go again...

WSJ article, you can read it through this link, about the governemnt and private data mining. While this again touches on an an earlier discussion here (with my last reply), I think it reiterates some key points, and leads to some new questions. Key points are:

"New powers granted to the government under the Patriot Act mean that Washington can secretly access people's records from businesses without having to provide any notification or seek a judge's permission. Companies are in fact prohibited by the law from disclosing that they had received such requests."

And, "The records are supposed to be about people in terrorism and espionage investigations, but the FBI is not required to show how they are connected to any terrorism case."

A couple of questions. One, the only check and balance seems to be the conscience of those in power. I'm really strained to find an instance in history where that worked out well. We're set up as a system of doubt of power, and controls on those who wield it. This is going away.

Two, because the Feds now have a vested interest in what companies record about our lives, they are no longer reliable protectors of our privacy. Issues like what can be gathered, shared, stored, and for how long are can no longer be trusted to the State. Rather than being a protector of the people, the Feds now need as much info on us, and kept for as long as possible. In other words, what should be an adversarial relationship between business and state, is now a cooperative one. Guess who loses in this new relationship? Look, I get why the feds have decided to outsource data collection, its much more efficient and cheaper to have companies do it that develop their own. But the question isn't is it smart for the feds, its is it smart for the citizens to allow it? and more importantly, is it legal?

Finally, I want to be clear, gathering info for a criminal investigation is a crucial step in protecting us all. My point is that I just don't understand why we the people no longer want a judge to voluntarily sign off on what can be done. Why are we so desperate to concentrate more power in the Executive branch? Why are we so willing to give up on the fighting fourth? Why eliminate what's worked though 200+ years, several wars, and a prolonged nuclear standoff?