WALLACE: Let me turn to another subject: drones. Last March, you famously took to the senate floor for 13 hours to filibuster a nomination because of your opposition to the military use of drones to attack U.S. citizens. This week, as I'm sure you know, Jeff Bezos, the head -- we're looking at a picture of the drone right there -- of Amazon announced that they have plans, a hope, maybe five years down the road, that drones would come pick up a package, a book, a sweater, and deliver it to your front door where you could -- you could take it instead of a delivery truck. When you see that, and I'm sure you have seen those videos, does that excite you or do you think to yourself, "That's a problem and I've got to find a way to block it"? PAUL: Well, you know, I'm not against technology. So, I'm not one of these people who says, "Oh, unmanned airplanes is really a bad thing." There will be air traffic control issues. My problem is more with surveillance for privacy reasons. PAUL: Not with delivering of packages. So, I'm worried about the government looking into our backyard. I'm also worried about private companies looking and counting and looking in our windows. And I have said previously, and this has nothing to do with Amazon, but that a rules on peeping toms will have to be applied to higher technology. There has to be a certain extension of your privacy. Not only your house, but your yard and the things that you do that really people shouldn't be able to observe all of the time. And so, there will have to be rules on private entities, but really most particularly I'm concerned about the government looking at our activities. WALLACE: We also learned this week, another revelation from Edward Snowden, that the NSA collects records on cell phones, 4 billion cell phone records outside the country every day. And that they can also track where those cell phones are so they can track where people are. Big picture: how severely would you like to restrict the surveillance by the National Security Agency? PAUL: I would like to apply the Fourth Amendment to third-party records. I don't think you give up your privacy when someone else holds your records. So, when I have a contract with a phone company, I think those are still my records. And you can look at them if you're from the government if you ask a judge. But the most important thing is, a warrant applies to one person. A warrant doesn't apply to everyone in America. So, it's absolutely against the spirit and the letter of the Fourth Amendment to say that a judge can write one warrant and you can get every phone call in America. That's what's happening. I think it's wrong. It goes against everything America stands for. And I will help to fight that all the way to the Supreme Court. And we need the Supreme Court to re-examine privacy, the Fourth Amendment and our records. WALLACE: So, you would ban, if you could, mass data mining -- this kind of huge vacuum hovering up of information? PAUL: I'm for going after terrorists with every tool we have. I'm not opposed to the NSA. I'm not opposed to spying. But I am in favor of the Fourth Amendment. So, if we think someone's a terrorist, you call a judge. You get a warrant. If that person's called 100 people, you get 100 more warrants. If they've called 10,000 people, you got to get 10,000 individual warrants. And it's a pain. But it's a pain because we're trying to protect people's freedom. We're trying to protect the Bill of Rights. That's what we're fighting against terrorism to protect. So, we can't give up the Bill of Rights in order to try to fight terrorism. You have to keep your privacy. You have to keep the Bill of Rights.
Rand Paul: 4th Amendment protection should apply to 3rd party records
WALLACE: Let me turn to another subject: drones. Last March, you famously took to the senate floor for 13 hours to filibuster a nomination because of your opposition to the military use of drones to attack U.S. citizens. This week, as I'm sure you know, Jeff Bezos, the head -- we're looking at a picture of the drone right there -- of Amazon announced that they have plans, a hope, maybe five years down the road, that drones would come pick up a package, a book, a sweater, and deliver it to your front door where you could -- you could take it instead of a delivery truck. When you see that, and I'm sure you have seen those videos, does that excite you or do you think to yourself, "That's a problem and I've got to find a way to block it"? PAUL: Well, you know, I'm not against technology. So, I'm not one of these people who says, "Oh, unmanned airplanes is really a bad thing." There will be air traffic control issues. My problem is more with surveillance for privacy reasons. PAUL: Not with delivering of packages. So, I'm worried about the government looking into our backyard. I'm also worried about private companies looking and counting and looking in our windows. And I have said previously, and this has nothing to do with Amazon, but that a rules on peeping toms will have to be applied to higher technology. There has to be a certain extension of your privacy. Not only your house, but your yard and the things that you do that really people shouldn't be able to observe all of the time. And so, there will have to be rules on private entities, but really most particularly I'm concerned about the government looking at our activities. WALLACE: We also learned this week, another revelation from Edward Snowden, that the NSA collects records on cell phones, 4 billion cell phone records outside the country every day. And that they can also track where those cell phones are so they can track where people are. Big picture: how severely would you like to restrict the surveillance by the National Security Agency? PAUL: I would like to apply the Fourth Amendment to third-party records. I don't think you give up your privacy when someone else holds your records. So, when I have a contract with a phone company, I think those are still my records. And you can look at them if you're from the government if you ask a judge. But the most important thing is, a warrant applies to one person. A warrant doesn't apply to everyone in America. So, it's absolutely against the spirit and the letter of the Fourth Amendment to say that a judge can write one warrant and you can get every phone call in America. That's what's happening. I think it's wrong. It goes against everything America stands for. And I will help to fight that all the way to the Supreme Court. And we need the Supreme Court to re-examine privacy, the Fourth Amendment and our records. WALLACE: So, you would ban, if you could, mass data mining -- this kind of huge vacuum hovering up of information? PAUL: I'm for going after terrorists with every tool we have. I'm not opposed to the NSA. I'm not opposed to spying. But I am in favor of the Fourth Amendment. So, if we think someone's a terrorist, you call a judge. You get a warrant. If that person's called 100 people, you get 100 more warrants. If they've called 10,000 people, you got to get 10,000 individual warrants. And it's a pain. But it's a pain because we're trying to protect people's freedom. We're trying to protect the Bill of Rights. That's what we're fighting against terrorism to protect. So, we can't give up the Bill of Rights in order to try to fight terrorism. You have to keep your privacy. You have to keep the Bill of Rights.
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