A few days ago the state’s corporate partners in surveillance were getting uppidy because their profits were being threatened by the National Security Agency’s (NSA) fast and loose strategy to spy on everybody. The primary mistake made by the NSA is not cutting its corporate partners in on the game. It sounds like the White House is no longer going to standby and allow this mistake to continue:
A White House panel has recommended significant curbs on the National Security Agency’s sweeping electronic surveillance programmes.
Among its 46 recommendations, the five-member panel said the NSA should cease storing vast amounts of data on calls processed by US phone companies.
We’re supposed to read that and believe that the White House has moved in to curtail the NSA’s surveillance apparatus. But what its recommendation really means is that the spying will continue but the corporate partners will get a piece of the action by storing the data and, almost certainly, charging the NSA for access.
If the White House continues pushing this strategy and includes companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple it will almost certainly satisfy its corporate partners.