BAD HARDWARE WEEK

Justice Department proposal classifies most computer crimes as acts of terrorism. 
 From now for computer intrusion proposed rest of life in prison
The Justice Department is urging Congress to quickly approve its Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), a twenty-five page proposal that would expand the government's legal powers to conduct electronic surveillance, access business records, and detain suspected terrorists.
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99% BAD HARDWARE WEEK: NSA too? Nooooo, its only metadata (email content , phone numbers, people with you, your bank account, your travel , sexual, political habits etc)  not the intrusion, surveillance or terrorism, babe. :)
Seems that Big Brother became even bigger ! And that is not the end of its growth ! Imagine you hired a detective to eavesdrop on someone. He might plant a bug in their office. He might tap their phone. He might open their mail. The result would be the details of that person's communications. That's the "data."
Now imagine you hired that same detective to surveil that person. The result would be details of what he did: where he went, who he talked to, what he looked at, what he purchased -- how he spent his day. That's all metadata.
When the government collects metadata on people, the government puts them under surveillance. When the government collects metadata on the entire country, they put everyone under surveillance.  
When Google does it, they do the same thing. Metadata equals surveillance; it's that simple.