The US Government is Wiretapping WAY More Americans Than it Wants to AdmitBefore Edward Snowden released his notorious NSA leaks, national intelligence officials swore they were not spying on millions of innocent people. As they lied through their teeth, ongoing revelations embarrassingly exposed their dishonesty. Now, yet another deception has come to light, revealing that the government has once again lied about the extent of its invasive policies. Since the controversy surrounding NSA surveillance began, private companies that cooperate with the government have taken steps to regain the trust of their users. In addition to offering encrypted communications (at the dramatic behest of authorities), companies now issue transparency reports to show how many requests for information the government makes. Gidari explained that Further, he noted that while this disparity is monumental, it only accounts for the four companies that issue transparency reportsmeaning the difference between the governments claims and what it actually requested is even larger. Some companies, like Apple, have issued partial transparency reports while others have not made any effort at all. Some reports detail hundreds of thousands of requeststhough they are not specific to wiretaps, but overall government demands. This makes the exact difference between government truths and objective reality even harder to discern. Are wiretaps being consistently underreported to Congress and the public? Gidari asks. Based on the data reported by the four major carriers for 2013 and 2014, it certainly would appear to be the case. He told Ars Technica that we are still off by 30 percent even if all four carriers got the same order and it covered multiple devices. It is nothing new for the surveillance state to be dishonest about the severity of its policies. First, Director of Intelligence James Clapper lied about whether or not the program existed. Then, members of Congress lied about the effectiveness of steps taken to curb itsupporting, for example, the USA Freedom Actwhich did nothing but add a bureaucratic step to the process by which the state can access whatever user information it wants. Government proponents of these policies often inflate their value by falsely insisting that they help stop terrorism or that they must be able to access all information, at all times, in order to keep America safe from a plethora of nebulousand always chronicthreats. Ironically, many of the dangers that helped justify the growth of the monolithic surveillance state are fabricated, as well, from the fear-mongering inflicted after 9/11 that justified the Patriot Act and Iraq War to the increasingly laughable assertion that the governments goal is to preserve the safety of the American people. News that the state has once again used deception to elevate its image and power is unfortunately nothing but a predictable tool to justify oppression and encourage submission. Carey Wedler writes for theAntiMedia.org, where this article first appeared. Tune in! Anti-Media Radio airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Help us fix our typos: edits@theantimedia.org. Encrypt every meta data and or byteall the real criminals do anyways. btw: half the worlds population has boobs get over it already 