To: President Donald Trump
NSA intrusions on our privacy
We are concerned that the President and the Executive Branch have failed to control the NSA's repeated and ongoing intrusions into the private communications and medical and financial records of U.S. citizens. As evidence of our concern, we are adding to our e-mail signatures the following line: "When you write please keep in mind that, although it is illegal, the NSA will be reading your message to me and mine to you."
Why is this important?
I am a psychoanalyst. I have started this petition because recent revelations (e.g., NY Times, 5 September 2013) make it clear that messages -- even encrypted messages -- which I exchange with my patients (via e-mail, IM, telephone, or Skype) can and will be intercepted, decrypted, and analyzed by the NSA. This violates HIPAA regulations and seriously interferes with my ability to communicate with the very people to whom I have promised that what they tell me will be kept in complete confidence. When trust is undermined in the psychotherapeutic or psychoanalytic arena, I am no longer able to do my work.