A Mathematician Mulls Domestic Spying

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 11:32 AM on February 9, 2006.

Abbas of 3Quarks daily points to a fascinating column by mathematician John Alan Paulos who considers the arguments for domestic spying from a quantitative perspective.

In any case, the Fourth Amendment is being violated with arrogance and seeming impunity. For the record, it states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." I'm familiar with many definitions of "probable," but there's no meaning of the term I know that can be used to justify large-scale warrantless searches.

Paulos goes on to argue that a massive domestic spying program is unlikely to yield much additional security, but that it will necessarily involve intrusions on a vast number of innocent Americans (just because non-terrorists outnumber terrorists so heavily).

[3Quarks Daily]

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Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.