User blog comment:Semanticdrifter/Digital Protest Against the FISA Improvements Act/@comment-5384369-20140204220033/@comment-20644-20140204221853

Great questions!

Most of the surveillance apparatus came about after 9/11 as a means of preventing future terrorist attacks, but the debate now is over whether the government has gone too far, particularly by keeping it secret. The reason it's become such a larger issue now is because of a massive disclosure made by Edward Snowden, a NSA contractor, last year. He revealed many of these government surveillance and data collection programs, leading to the debate people are having now.

You are correct that when you put things out on the internet, that will remain there forever. What people are debating about are the implications of the government storing your private data indefinitely, and tracking your online activity&mdash;and whether that could be abused. The biggest concern people have is that this is being done in secret, with minimal public input and judicial oversight.