08.11.2013 - 08:27 [ Techdirt ]

Al Gore And Tim Berners-Lee Condemn NSA Surveillance: Appalling And Unconstitutional

There‘s the famous (incorrect) meme out there that Al Gore once took credit for inventing the internet (he didn‘t), but it does appear that he has one thing very much in common with the guy who actually invented the web (which, of course, is not the internet), Tim Berners-Lee: they‘re both absolutely disgusted by the NSA‘s surveillance activities. Al Gore slammed the NSA in a speech in Montreal, saying that the NSA‘s activities were „outrageous“ and „completely unacceptable.“ He even went so far as to say that Snowden „revealed evidence of what appears to be crimes against the Constitution of the United States.“ Furthermore, he took on the oft-repeated claim from the NSA and its defenders that they need to collect all the haystacks by quoting a scholar on the CIA: „when you are looking for a needle in a haystack, it’s not always wise to pile more hay on the haystack.“