U.S. Government Surveillance: Bad for Silicon Valley, Bad for World Democracy
I posted the following comment in another thread[0], but it is even more relevant here:<p><pre><code>    The other thing that is so worrying about the US having 
    the communications of people around the world 
    indiscriminately is that it basically means that the NSA 
    is in a position to blackmail any citizen of any country 
    that enters into a position of power in that country.

    Forget installing a shah of Iran or propping some dictator 
    in a South American country. They can now do the same at 
    an arms length. Just collect dirt on all foreigners, wait 
    until they get into power, then use whatever dirt you 
    collected over many years to blackmail that person to do 
    things that are in the self interest of the people at the 
    NSA instead of the self interest of the people that duly 
    elected that representative.

    This whole situation is a legitimate threat to democracy 
    in this country, but Congress may try to put checks and 
    balances in place to slow the rate at which it erodes 
    democracy at home. However, of more immediate importance 
    is how this is a legitimate threat to democracy everywhere 
    outside the US.

    Many Americans may hear the NSA say things like "We don't 
    do anything illegal and coercive with this information at 
    home" and may believe them. But do most Americans think it 
    is reasonable to coerce elected officials or other 
    countries using any information gathered by the NSA? 
    Should we not be asking the NSA if they actually do that?

    This is one of the questions I most want to see asked:

    "General Keith B. Alexander, has the NSA ever wittingly 
    used collected information on any foreigner elected to 
    office by his or her citizens to coerce or blackmail that 
    duly elected official to pursue policies that may not be 
    in the interest of the citizens that elected them?"
</code></pre>
IMHO any type of coercion or blackmail of any leader of any country is tantamout to an act of war against the citizens of that country. However these acts would often never be known by the citizens of those countries. Instead, if they are unhappy with coerced actions, they can only blame the politician being coerced instead of being able to blame the people pulling the strings.<p>[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5959271" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5959271</a>