The NSA is spying on Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism.
Through a program called PRISM (and likely others) the government has the ability to capture and store every type of electronic communication you make. The plan was to use these programs only overseas, but it has been revealed that all kinds of communications of innocent Americans are being tracked and stored as well. Your phone calls can be recorded, who you called and how long the call lasted is recorded, your e-mail and web browsing can all be tracked (and should be assumed, is tracked).
This is a massive story that should be on the front page of every news website and newspaper in the country, but it is being kept under wraps.
One great example: Lavabit, a secured, encryped e-mail company, recently abruptly shut down.
It was revealed in July that Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who spilled the beans about the PRISM program to a UK newspaper, was a customer of Lavabit’s services. This led to a surge in new subscribers to the company’s services.
The owner of the one-employee (literally the owner and an intern) company shut the company down and posted a letter on the company’s website saying, essentially, he was asked to do something by the government he felt he could not due and maintain his conscience or his 100% encrypted and secure service. Oh, and he was also given a gag order so he couldn’t tell the public or his customers exactly what the government asked him to do. The order was likely from a secret court that you and I, and Congress, will never see.
Scary.
Later that evening a second encrypted email service, Silence Circle, preemptively shut down. They figured they were next.
What does all this have to do with your personal finances?
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