NSA, Patriot Act, Snowden, Lavabit - Is U.S. Govt pushing the envelope too much?

You can debate the Snowden story various different ways. Is he a Traitor? Is he a Hero? You can argue both sides pretty effectively depending on your vantage point. One thing is for sure - most Americans are feeling uneasy about invasion of privacy by the government agencies.

There is one country in the World that can claim to be the true friend of "freedom of speech". And, that's the good old U.S. of A. However, recent events surrounding Snowden revelations around the NSA spying scandal have scarred that claim. Where there's smoke there's fire. There are a lot of interesting and shocking facts in Snowden's disclosures. Even President Obama has promised NSA surveillance reforms (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/obama-nsa-surveillance-reforms-press-conference).

Ladar Levison, Owner of Lavabit, a free secure email service used by Snowden, posted a letter on Socialnumber.com (http://socialnumber.com/discussion/become-complicit-crimes-against-american-people-or-walk-away-ten-years-hard-work) informing users that he had decided to suspend his service to protect Americans from "crimes against them". This move, apparently was driven by a secret NSA search warrant with a gag order (hint: Patriot Act = Govt can kill your constitutional rights anytime it wants).

Anyway, we hope Ladar will be able to pursue this legally and get his operations back up and running. Anonymous sites like Lavabit, Socialnumber.com and others allow users to express themselves freely which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Freedom of speech is desperately needed not only in the U.S. but around the globe. I hope the U.S. Government can keep a proper balance between going after the terrorists to protect citizens and protecting constitutional rights of the citizens.

- M.K.

What you post on social media can come back and haunt you

A recent survey by Lawyers.com reveals that most people don't think of the consequences before they post on social media like Twitter, Facebook, and others.

"The reason why it's a wake-up call is because the study indicates that more than half the people out there who use social media don't realize that what they post on social media can be used against them in a court of a law, and to me that's a big surprise," said Zimmerman.

Even if you don't think it has an legal implications, it can come back and haunt you. For example, your posts can be subpoenaed at any point. Also, if you checked in online that can be held against you in case.

Online posts can also get you in trouble with your boss.

"When you work for somebody you have the right not to be discriminated against your race, your gender, your sex, your ethnicity, where you were born - the protected class things federal law protects, but you don't have the right to be stupid," said Zimmerman.

One more reason to move away from the mainstream social media and start using anonymous social media websites like socialnumber.com. Facebook, and Twitter are good for harmless status updates on your birthday, family pictures etc. But when it comes to discuss real issues online the only safe way is to do it anonymously.

- M.K.