While I'm not necessarily defending how the US is currently doing it, I do have to laugh when the European countries get up in arms publicly over domestic surveillance, when they do much the same things at home. Difference is that in Britain, for example, the security services most likely do much the same things, but, they can tell the press not to talk about it.
Basically, all developed countries do this stuff. Again, leaving out the right or wrong of it, it's pretty naive for anyone in a developed country to think that their country is not spying on their telecommunications and/or Internet use. They just may hide it better than the US has.
The fact is, you're probably not going to stop the information from being extracted. The only thing we may be able to affect is how that information is used, and how much of it is kept, and who it is kept about; i.e. Joe Average, law-abiding citizen may come up in the logs, but his data shouldn't be kept, while Suspected Terrorist Financier X should be watched. However, there should be checks and balances to make sure that the 'terrorist financier' has done more than just speak out against the government.
Basically, all developed countries do this stuff. Again, leaving out the right or wrong of it, it's pretty naive for anyone in a developed country to think that their country is not spying on their telecommunications and/or Internet use. They just may hide it better than the US has.
The fact is, you're probably not going to stop the information from being extracted. The only thing we may be able to affect is how that information is used, and how much of it is kept, and who it is kept about; i.e. Joe Average, law-abiding citizen may come up in the logs, but his data shouldn't be kept, while Suspected Terrorist Financier X should be watched. However, there should be checks and balances to make sure that the 'terrorist financier' has done more than just speak out against the government.
--Mav