The White House has a new survey up that asks us some pertinent questions about how we feel about our data and privacy. It's worth taking a few minutes to fill it out, because this is probably one of the few chances you have to directly put forth your views on the matter in a way that might be taken into account by a branch of our government.

My problem with government surveillance is this: Intelligence agencies are misrepresenting (or flat out lying about) their use of data to Congress and the Senate, but drawing their funding from us, the American people, through the budget created for them from the legislative branch.

In essence, this creates taxation without representation – if our representatives aren't properly informed as to what our money is being spent on, then how can we be assured that our Congressmen and Senators are able to do the job we elected them to do?

We don't vote for the NSA or the CIA chiefs, so we have to be able to trust that our elected representatives can do that, both by selecting appropriate choices to head these agencies (the President), and by holding the purse strings (Congress). But when intelligence agencies aren't answerable to either their appointer or funders, then we are no longer able to call ourselves a democracy. Our elected officials are no longer able to effectively govern the unelected officials.

The government must be accountable to the people, yet bulk surveillance means that we, the people, are forced to be accountable to the government, regardless of whether we are criminals or law abiding citizens.

No matter what you feel on the subject, I recommend weighing in and filling out the survey – if you don't speak up, you can't complain when bad things happen. Or at least, you can't complain without looking like an idiot.