NOTHING HAS BEEN WON
(…from his notions that privacy exists in the digital world we live in)

If God created the world in seven days, then with technology Snowden has tried to blow it apart in half that time.

Contrary to his recent self-justifying video clip as a “heroic” whistle blower, nothing has been won…from his notions that privacy exists in the digital world we live in. It doesn’t, and probably never will, especially if we continue to swarm like ravening piranhas after every latest application for all those digital devices of ours, ostensibly created for our convenience and entertainment, so we can interconnect with anyone, about anything, anytime, and anywhere around the globe.

So if you have a cell phone, an IPad, a Tablet, a Laptop, a Desktop, hell, even OnStar in your car (whether you want it or not), or satellite TV…and…if you cruise the Net, browsing, emailing, texting, blogging, Facebooking, Twitting, buying anything on line, have a web site, and otherwise are immersed in such a world…don’t kid yourself, your privacy, much like your virginity…has long been gone.

Snowden’s blast at the NSA wasn’t a useful revelation. Everyone already knew and understood what it was doing (as it was set up to do). What was not known was the scope of what it was doing, and, how well technology was letting it do it. Ironically, because of that capacity, it managed to amass a Mt. Everest of what can only be called –digital garbage- (Meta Data), of such a volume it’s very difficult to mine for any nuggets of useful intelligence value. A nearly impossible task because its data-collecting effectiveness is literally overwhelming its data-analyzing capabilities. Not a good thing from a security point of view.

Thus, Snowden’s apparent disregard for that aspect of the problem, to focus instead on the privacy issue, raises serious questions about the credibility of his motives for doing what he did. That, plus the fact that he also ran away, unlike Mr. Elsberg who had the courage of his convictions to stay and confront the establishment of those times, even in the face of jail time, further diminishes his claim to whistle-blowing status.

NSA, meanwhile, is certainly quietly moving on from this momentary tempest, re-adjusting its protocols, and re-calibrating its operating methods, to continue doing its assigned mission, just as before. As for our career politicos, these will perform their usual charades of legislative corrective action, making a few “oversight” tweaks to procedures as a way to assuage public concerns about it all…and not much else.

As for the rest of us let us understand the realities involved here. The NSA is not the only Meta-Data gatherer out there. The recent –Target- incident is a good indication of that. There’s not a financial institution, not a merchant retailer, not a news organization, nor even a political party pollster, that isn’t operating with some version of it, and in ways even more “intrusive” than what the NSA will ever do.

In short, perhaps we should all really think hard about that old motto: “ABANDON ALL HOPE (of privacy) ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE”…when we plunge into this digital world of ours.

CENTURION