NSA’s misguided snooping on innocent people

[Commentary] Even those who believe the National Security Agency’s vacuum-cleaner surveillance of electronic communications does not trample privacy rights should be troubled by this practical implication: If you try to know everything, you end up knowing nothing.

The NSA is gathering and warehousing enormous amounts of private information, most of it irrelevant because it concerns innocent individuals -- mostly foreigners but some US citizens as well. By “innocent,” I mean the NSA is convinced these people have no involvement with any activity that poses a threat. But the agency keeps their information anyway.