> The U.S. doesn't need to know who they're targeting or show probable cause when ordering Facebook, WhatsApp or any tech company to help agencies spy on users in secret, newly-unsealed court documents show.<p>> U.S. federal agencies have been using a 35-year-old American surveillance law to secretly track WhatsApp users with no explanation as to why and without knowing who they are targeting.<p>Doesn't include actual message content. Still very bad.
The Chinese government, and now others will also look more seriously into these matters, seems justified in building their Great Firewall after these constant stories of the surveillance state at work domestically and internationally.<p>We can't even keep the NSA from illegally prying into alleged "domestic terrorists" like Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali:<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillan...</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968101" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968101</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall</a>
As for issuing no warrant or probable course- what of it? American law enforcement only needs to respect their own citizens,not citizens living and belonging to another country.<p>This is a very unpleasant tactic, but i have to say i would feel far more uncomfortable if it was China who had this capability and not the US.