Posted by Leonard Steinberg on October 26th, 2013

The world is AGHAST at the revelations that the US has been monitoring phone calls and e-mails across the globe, as if spying and intelligence gathering were something very new to our planet. The Germans (with their deep history of isolation?)are especially perturbed about this subject: really???

When I show a super-luxe apartment I am selling in West Chelsea, there are cameras monitoring every move I make: why? For security. Its that simple and that smart. Do I feel my privacy is being INVADED by this? Not at all. I understand that if I am doing my job well and doing nothing wrong, this monitoring won’t have any negative effect on me. Surveillance is critical in to-days complex times when even the most innocent-looking have a dark side. The outrage about mass surveillance sounds eerily similar to the outrage about the lack of intelligence before and during the Iraq War: security requires intense scrutiny. You cannot have one without the other.

I for one like the fact that criminals and those with bad intentions know that they are being watched: we would still be looking for those crazy Boston bombers had it not been for surveillance. Surveillance makes for safer cities and healthier real estate and I say: BRING IT ON!