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Does privacy matter? Journalist snoops on NSA spy

[https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/11/surveillance-philosopher-nsa The Intercept wrote a compelling investigation in *What Happens When a Failed Writer Becomes a Loyal Spy?*, based on the Edward Snowden NSA leaks, about modern-day privacy and its implications told through the lens of finding the identity of the NSA's in-house philosopher:

“I found myself wishing that my life would be constantly and completely monitored,” he continued. “It might seem odd that a self-professed libertarian would wish an Orwellian dystopia on himself, but here was my rationale: If people knew a few things about me, I might seem suspicious. But if people knew everything about me, they’d see they had nothing to fear. This is the attitude I have brought to SIGINT work since then.

”When intelligence officials justify surveillance, they tend to use the stilted language of national security, and we typically hear only from senior officials who stick to their platitudes. It is rare for mid-level experts — the ones conducting the actual surveillance — to frankly explain what they do and why. And in this case, the candid confessions come from the NSA’s own surveillance philosopher. The columns answer a sociological curiosity: How does working at an intelligence agency turn a privacy hawk into a prophet of eavesdropping?

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