User blog comment:Semanticdrifter/Digital Protest Against the FISA Improvements Act/@comment-3441771-20140205034412

I'm not surprised about the existence of Prism. I can only assume people are outraged because it was exposed. How dare No Such Agency be doing exactly what we thought they were doing! My major problem lies with their information gathering extending beyond US borders, an inherent complication with the world wide web, compounded by the US government erroneously believing it has control over the web &mdash; to be fair most governments believe they can control the web within their borders... the US, however, leads the charge in trying to control everybody online.

Furthermore, when the police want to surveil a suspect they have to get a warrant for each instance and there has to be reasonable evidence the person or persons are involved in criminal activity. The NSA storing the comings and goings of millions of internet users is clumsy. There is far too much data there to find anything or anyone preemptively. This is another concern my mine; the blanket approach which infringes on ordinary people's rights so blatantly, and so willingly. Terrorist nut jobs make lawmakers afraid, and the first thing they do is throw democracy and freedom out the window faster than you can say "police state". What's worse is that Prism won't work, somebody who has been up to no good has undoubtedly been avoiding the internet! It's just common sense!

Snowden is a very brave man, not a traitor. The traitors are those who invented Prism and its many, many counterparts. Information gathering on this scale is only possible via the internet; a Big Brother-style US would not be tolerated by its citizens. The internet is used by shady people doing very bad things, but that doesn't excuse it being used by good people to do very shady things...