Commentaries, Opinions, And Analysis On The NSA Collecting Verizon Phone Records (Updated)

Government Phone Surveillance for Dummies -- Megan Garber, The Atlantic

Surprise: Your leaders are monitoring the calls you make! Some frequently asked questions, answered.

First things first: What's all the fuss about?

The discovery and publication of a top-secret court order, issued this April, compelling Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of its U.S. customers to the National Security Agency.

So, whoa, the government has been eavesdropping on our phone conversations?

Not quite slash not that we know of. The order calls for the turnover of metadata, the external information about the telephone calls. It specifically excludes the content of the call. As the order puts it, "telephony metadata does not include the substantive content of any communication, as defined by 18 U.S.C. 2510(8), or the name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer."

Read more ....

More News On Commentaries, Opinions, And Analysis On The NSA Collecting Verizon Phone Records

What We Don't Know About Spying on Citizens: Scarier Than What We Know -- Bruce Schneier, The Atlantic
Also Revealed by Verizon Leak: How the NSA and FBI Lie With Numbers -- Kevin Poulsen, Threat Level/Wired
Show Me the Memo Obama should share his legal justification for collecting Verizon's phone records -- Jeffrey Rosen, New Republic
A Look at America’s Most Secretive Court -- Wall Street Journal
Is Congress Responsible for NSA Phone Data Mining? -- Lauren Fox, US News and World Report
Scope of NSA's phone data snooping is 'breathtaking' -- Jaikumar Vijayan, Computer World
Expert: NSA phone-tracking 'insane' -- Philip Ewing, Politico
Collection of phone records stirs debate: Valuable tool or 'beyond Orwellian'? -- Josh Levs and Greg Botelho, CNN
‘No Such Agency’ spies on the communications of the world -- Anne Gearan, Washington Post
NSA's phone snooping a different kind of creepy -- Douglas Rushkoff, Special to CNN
Verizon phone-snooping flap: why Obama won't be harmed -- Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor
Obama's Verizon surveillance reveals massive erosion of US civil liberties -- Jonathan Turley, The Guardian
NSA Collection Of Verizon Phone Records Sparks Angry Reactions -- The Guardian
Obama's Verizon phone records collection carries on Bush's work -- Richard Seymour, The Guardian
NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily -- Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian
What An NSA Domestic Spying Operation Looks Like -- Frontline
The N.S.A.-Verizon Scandal -- Amy Davidson, New Yorker
Obama's Security State Now Out of Control -- Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
Civil liberties groups react to report on government collecting phone records -- FOX News
'Can You Hear Me Now?' Social Media Reacts Bitterly To NSA Surveillance Of Verizon -- Betsy Isaacson, Huffington Post
Privacy Groups Furious Over Secret NSA Verizon Order -- Mashable
Liberals Can't Ignore the Verizon Phone Records Scandal -- Jordan Fabian, ABC News
Obama’s Phone Spying May Be Distasteful, But it’s Legal -- Adam Weinstein, ABC News
The Secret Law Behind NSA's Verizon Snooping -- Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
Big Brother is Watching Your Cell Phone -- Megan McArdle, Daily Beast
Wake Up, America: You're Letting Your Privacy Slip Away -- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
'Outrageous': Verizon reportedly forced to turn over customers' phone records -- CNN
NSA Spying: An Obama Scandal? -- David Corn, Mother Jones
What does the Verizon order mean for me? -- Michael Pearson, CNN
3 Key Questions for the White House on the Verizon Phone Record Dragnet -- Terry Moran, ABC News
NSA spying on Americans is an outrage -- Jay Bookman, AJC
Should the Government Stop Collecting Phone Records? -- Teresa Welsh, US News and World Report
Verizon, Telephony Metadata, the National Security Agency and You -- Doug Aamoth, Time
Court order forcing Verizon to hand over call data 'in place since 2006' -- The Guardian
Verizon court order: telephone call metadata and what it can show -- The Guardian
Q. and A. on the Domestic Surveillance Program -- New York Times