I agree they are not exclusive, but I can see how my comment suggests they are. There's no harm in people doing both, and I agree they're more likely to vote if they participate, but mostly only due to correlation and not causation.
Having access to every communication made by most of the population is a hugely powerful tool. People in power want to stay in power. They know they can run these surveillance programs with impunity, so why not do it? It doesn't cost them anything.
If you gave anyone the ability to get insider information on something deeply important to them, they would almost certainly take it.
The issue is not a lack of awareness. The vast majority of the voting-capable population has heard, to at least some extent, that the NSA/others are surveilling communications. The issue is either they don't care, they agree with the surveillance, or they are too lazy to become informed and vote to change it.
There is literally nothing on this site about being involved in voting or the politicians supporting or fighting this type of activity. If they at the very least gave visitors some way to continue their participation and become informed, I would be fine with it. Right now it's just attention for the sake of attention. It needs to be channeled into something useful.
Are you concerned about privacy in your own country? You should be voting for leaders who don't allow the US to put their fingers in your pie. As an individual you should be taking steps to protecting your online activity and data.
I'm not sure what this is supposed to do. You're showing a congress a list of people who disapprove of privacy violations. Then what? Congress knows people disapprove and they don't seem to care.
I dislike slacktivism like this. I feel that it's damaging because it wastes attention and effort that could be put to good use. Instead of taking a photo of yourself and writing a hashtag, become an informed and educated voter who actually votes, votes for people who represent the majority of your beliefs (don't be a single issue voter), and votes for someone who has a track record of governing as they promised they would. Encourage others to do the same. It's literally the only thing that will fix these problems.
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is pretty cool. I like his transparency. He writes really useful things. His writing about salary negotiation is probably the single most useful thing I've ever read. Lots of other stuff he's covered I hope will be relevant to me in the coming years (B2B sales).
I'm surprised there are not more people on HN who don't use Dropbox due to NSA/privacy concerns. Do you really want to worry about all your files, which are probably your most valuable ones, being out in the open to any Dropbox, NSA, or other law enforcement employee? Do you really trust Dropbox to not have a repeat of accidentally allowing your files to be publicly viewable by anyone? When there are encrypted alternatives that are as easy to use, there is seemingly no point of using Dropbox.