Why is the NSA spying on innocent people?

Because you can't just selectively spy on the real terrorists (if there are any). You have to gather all the information on everyone, then you can narrow it down, by searching for "bomb" in all internet traffic for example.

It's quite simple. They are collecting everything that might be of use in the future. Since you can't know exactly what you might need from an in-tel stand point then you save every bit of data you can.

Also the ability of Big data to find correlations in data gets exponentially better with the more data you have. This NSA program is the very definition of Big Data at work.

You can't have total power without total surveillance. Communist dictators and others knew that very well. To remain in power you need to crush any and all dissent, as early as possible. For that you need near perfect surveillance/spying on every one.

DHS was already giving surveillance info to the police through the "fusion centers" during OWS, and we know they were considering the protesters potential terrorists, and they were arresting a lot of people who protested against the banks. It was pretty clear on which side the government was on.

So what do you think will happen at the next potential massive protest? Start thinking stuff like "pre-crime" (which will be achieved if they continue like this), and there may never be a massive protest again, because everyone who attempts to attend one will be arrested.

I don't know what the hell is going through these people's heads, and whether they're all just psychopaths or they really want all this power, but the fact that US considers all countries "adversaries" is just another side effect, because they already consider everyone who might speak or protest against the government a "threat".

Your title makes no sense. According to such agencies, there are no "innocent" people. From their perspective, there is only definite threats and potential threats.

And yes, the vast majority is doubtless completely useless. They're looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Their rationale is that, in order to find the needle, they'd better ensure they have the entire haystack (preferably the entire farm).

Sorry, but what do you mean we "finally have proof"? We have insinuations that they are ahead of the field in cracking encryption standards and that they work with companies to easy surveillance, but that alone is not enough to show that they we all have been "spied on, all the time"...and certainly, not "there's little or nothing that can be done about it."

Have you already forgotten about Edward Snowden? The NSA contractor (i.e outside employee, and by most accounts, not a high-level one in terms of ranking) copied tens of thousands of documents and secret files? Maybe you read that he, too, was a regular Internet user. In fact, he was a frequent anonymous poster to Ars Technica, where, according to reports:

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/21/nation/la-na-nsa-sno...

> But in hundreds of online postings dating back a decade, Snowden also denounced "pervasive government secrecy" and criticized America's "unquestioning obedience towards spooky types."

If the NSA has a continuous surveillance program going on, it sure sucks if it couldn't unmask its rebellious contractor before he went and took a bunch of files with him to Hong Kong. And it doesn't seem that he did much to hide his identity, if Ars Technica could de-anonymize him.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to downplay this situation. But your defeatism is just as naive as what you probably think of Americans who don't seem to mind the NSA. If you're really upset about this whole thing, how is your unfounded attitude of "there's little or nothing that can be done about it" going to contribute much? I would argue that that kind of easy cynicism is what helps us get into these scenarios in the first place.