On The NSA Revelations

Some thoughts on the recent WaPo revelations about the NSA. In particular, I disagree that the story should be blown off because the number of violations represents a small percentage of total searches:

Viewing the violations in relative terms is relevant if we’re evaluating the good faith of the agents within the NSA. In broader civil liberties terms, however, to focus on relative as opposed to absolute numbers is wrong. Precisely the problem with moving away from the typical requirement that searches and seizures require individualized suspicion is that the sheer scope of the NSA’s searches increases the chances for violations of civil liberties. That the large number of violations occurred in the context of a huge number of searches is beside the point. The more searches, the greater the chances civil liberties violations will occur. Indeed, in this sense the fact that most of the errors seem to have been inadvertent is even more disturbing—if this number of violations can occur when agents are trying to follow the law in good faith, consider the dangers posed by NSA personnel who aren’t acting in good faith.