With comments to HN or public comments on blog posts, etc. I think that the government could have gotten it anyway. If the government wants to snoop on things I say publically there isn't much I can do about it. But with private emails, it's a different matter. The question is, "what will someone think if they read this?" And so those emails end up self-censored, not discussing big controversies, and I put the political thoughts out there front and center for all to see.
So it means that for HN, no difference. I will say what i would say before. Same for any other public comment area. But there are things now that I would say in public that I am not sure I would say in private.
That's probably the feeling of most people. Martin Fowler wrote an insightful post about this subject:
Privacy Protects Bothersome People …and isn't about me (or probably you) http://martinfowler.com/articles/bothersome-privacy.html
He argues that privacy on the internet is important, not because normal people have something to hide, but because journalists and activists (or other counterpowers in a well-balanced democracy) need a certain level of privacy in order to work.
Yet, even some of the nuttiest, worst-case scenarios that people feared about in the wake of the Clipper Chip debacle have been surpassed by reality.
It boggles the mind.
You are missing a word: yet. You are not interesting yet. You might become interesting some time in the future, and discover that what you thought were uninteresting conversations today can be used against you. Here is a famous example:
Of course, that's one of the aims of a surveillance state: if any word or action could be used against you, then people mainly police themselves.
"Following the Nazis' invasion of the Soviet Union, the Guild gave its support to President Roosevelt's wartime policies, including that of Japanese American internment."
Would people say the same if Ficher's "youthful indiscretion" if he'd worked for a Nazi front after, say, Kristallnacht? (See the above quote, they wouldn't have between 23 August 1939 and 22 June 1941.) Was it that difficult for Ficher avoid working for a cause dedicated to the violent overthrow of the US government and the liquidation of its "capitalist" classes including the wealthier farmers?
"Right. Send him to Guantanamo!"