The NSA is out of control and must be stopped

[Commentary] The National Security Agency is breaking trust in democracy by breaking trust in the Internet. Every day, the NSA records the lives of millions of Americans and countless foreigners, collecting staggering amounts of information about who they know, where they've been, and what they've done. Its surveillance programs have been kept secret from the public they allegedly serve and protect. Despite his endorsement of NSA bulk surveillance, President Barack Obama may not even know everything the agency is up to; the White House and the NSA can’t even agree about whether the President knew the agency was tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone. In the face of political blinders and professed ignorance, several Congressional leaders now want to retroactively authorize the NSA’s mass spying programs rather than audit them. Do we need to be afraid of the NSA, as one might be afraid of a boot stamping on a human face, forever? Probably not. But the erosion of American civil liberties won’t appear out of thin air as an Orwellian caricature of totalitarianism. It looks more like a computer server silently blinking in a Utah data center, as it reconstructs the connective tissue of your entire life: a thorough diagram of your existence that can be recalled at any time by someone with the right permission level and the right query. Who’ll be behind the machines in four years? How about in 20? Who will our enemies be then?