On a cold Saturday, the first of February, Senator Bernie Sanders held a town meeting entitled NSA: Out Of Control.

We should be concerned with the secrecy, Georgetown law professor David Cole said at the Vermont State House.

Our Internet and cellular activity leaves a trace.

Every text, every credit card purchase, every link, every e-mail and every phone call tells an Internet Service Provider or cell network where you are, who you are with and what you are thinking about.

For more than a decade, the National Security Association has been collecting this metadata from the public.

For example, the NSA collects more than 200 million text messages a day.

From this information, the government can build a profile that can categorize you by political and religious ideologies and in general form a web of your digital existence.

In this modern age, your digital existence is more than an artificial addition to your life; it is a fingerprint of your identity.

This warrantless seizure of our information was collected while we were unaware, all without probable cause.

Democracy needs transparency from the government and privacy for its citizens; instead, we have a government which insists on privacy for itself and transparency upon its people. Cole said to a roaring applause from the crowd.

Some argue that the government requires this information, in order to ensure the safety of its citizens.

In reality, as Heidi Boghosian from the National Lawyers Guild said, the NSA bulk data program may have confirmed a few instances of terrorists threats.

But it has shown little light on new clues, especially those clues which would justify such large-scale gathering of data.

Sanders came to the stage and discussed the massive corporate interests profiting from such seizure of data.

The ability to tailor searches to consumer interests and to profile Americans to buy goods.

The conversation moves on to discuss the self-censoring of writers whom are too frightened to search items on the internet for research or to talk about a topic that might trigger investigation.

Then the questions are asked: What do we do with legislation, and what do we do as public citizens?

We need legislation that allows transparency to see the policies of storage, who has access, how many times request annual reports, Cole said.

Anything will be a start as long as we are conscious that so much power rests in the hands of the corporations.

But, we are not there yet.

We wont get the laws in place until there is a greater cultural sensitivity to the importance of protecting privacy in the digital age.

Our job is to stand up and say, the issue of human rights and freedom is a huge one, but if you can’t stand for these privacy rights, you can’t get my vote, Sanders said.

The government of the U.S. should listen to the ordinary people, instead of big money and big interests, he said.

On a cold Saturday, the first of February, Senator Bernie Sanders held a town meeting entitled ?NSA: Out Of Control.? ?We should be concerned with the secrecy,? Georgetown law professor David Cole said at the Vermont State House.Our Internet and cellular activity leaves a trace.Every text, every credit card purchase, every link, every e-mail and every phone call tells an Internet Service Provider or cell network where you are, who you are with and what you are thinking about. For more than a decade, the National Security Association has been collecting this metadata from the public. For example, the NSA collects more than 200 million text messages a day. From this information, the government can build a profile that can categorize you by political and religious ideologies and in general form a web of your digital existence. In this modern age, your digital existence is more than an artificial addition to your life; it is a fingerprint of your identity. This warrantless seizure of our information was collected while we were unaware, all without probable cause. ?Democracy needs transparency from the government and privacy for its citizens; instead, we have a government which insists on privacy for itself and transparency upon its people.? Cole said to a roaring applause from the crowd.Some argue that the government requires this information, in order to ensure the safety of its citizens. In reality, as Heidi Boghosian from the National Lawyers Guild said, the NSA bulk data program may have confirmed a few instances of terrorist?s threats. But it has shown little light on new clues, especially those clues which would justify such large-scale gathering of data.Sanders came to the stage and discussed the massive corporate interests profiting from such seizure of data.The ability to tailor searches to consumer interests and to profile Americans to buy goods. The conversation moves on to discuss the self-censoring of writers whom are too frightened to search items on the internet for research or to talk about a topic that might trigger investigation. Then the questions are asked: What do we do with legislation, and what do we do as public citizens? ?We need legislation that allows transparency to see the policies of storage, who has access, how many times request annual reports,? Cole said. Anything will be a start as long as we are conscious that so much power rests in the hands of the corporations. But, we are not there yet. We won?t get the laws in place until there is a greater cultural sensitivity to the importance of protecting privacy in the digital age.?Our job is to stand up and say, ?the issue of human rights and freedom is a huge one, but if you can?t stand for these privacy rights, you can?t get my vote,? Sanders said. ?The government of the U.S. should listen to the ordinary people, instead of big money and big interests,? he said.