Carnivore: Chewing Through Our Right to Privacy
The debate around Carnivore is not really about Carnivore itself. It is more of a debate of whether or not Carnivore oversteps current privacy laws and the Fourth Amendment. Carnivore is a software program that enables the FBI to filter and collect email on a subject of a court order to be used as evidence. The issue around Carnivore started when the ACLU and other such groups demanded a review of the system in 2000. Since then, there has been a Congressional review of Carnivore. The FBI believes that Carnivore is well within the bounds of the law and that such a system is necessary to fight crime on the Internet. Advocates of privacy such as the ACLU believe that Carnivore violates Fourth Amendment rights and that the FBI cannot be trusted not to abuse Carnivore. In return, the FBI believes that the public should trust the FBI with electronic surveillance.
Basically, the debate around Carnivore is the FBI versus everyone else. Both sides of the Carnivore debate use mainly argument of definition to present their points. Since the integrity of the FBI has been called into question, the FBI’s argument for the use and need of Carnivore consists mainly of logos and ethos. Ethos is also used in order to build an image that the public can trust. Those who are against Carnivore use mainly pathos in their arguments to point out that Carnivore is a threat to personal privacy and that the FBI cannot be trusted.
The FBI’s position on Carnivore is outlined in Donald M. Kerr’s congressional statement made before a Senate committee that was reviewing the FBI’s Carnivore system. As the Assistant Director of the Laboratory Division for the FBI, Kerr has extensive knowledge of the workings and capabilities of the Carnivore system. In his statement, Kerr makes five points ranging from what Carnivore is to why the public should trust the FBI with Carnivore. Kerr explains that because terrorists, spies, hackers, and criminals used computers and the Internet, the FBI needs a tool like Carnivore to counter them. Another reason the FBI feels that they need Carnivore is to combat information warfare, fraud, and the spread of child pornography on the Internet. Logos in the form of statistics and examples is used to show that there has been an increased use of the Internet for criminal activity.
The word “privacy” has a different meaning in our society than it did in previous times. You can put on Privacy settings on Facebook, twitter, or any social media sights, however, nothing is truly personal and without others being able to view your information. You can get to know a person’s personal life simply by typing in their name in google. In the chronicle review, “Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have ‘Nothing to Hide,'" published on May 15th 2011, Professor Daniel J. Solove argues that the issue of privacy affects more than just individuals hiding a wrong. The nothing-to-hide argument pervades discussions about privacy. Solove starts talking about this argument right away in the article and discusses how the nothing-to-hide
...ood and give them the money that would help build up a strong government in foreign affairs, in fact they would not even want their government to be strong in any matter.
The Underground Railroad was an escape network of small, independent groups of individuals bound together by the common belief that enslaving a human being was immoral. A loosely structured, informal system of people who, without regard for their own personal safety. Conducting fugitives from slavery to free states, and eventually to Canada where they could not be returned to slavery was a dangerous undertaking.
The Underground Railroad was large group of people who secretly worked together to help slaves escape slavery in the south. Despite the name, the Underground Railroad had nothing to do with actual railroads and was not located underground (www.freedomcenter.org). The Underground Railroad helped move hundreds of slaves to the north each year. It’s estimated that the south lost 100,000 slaves during 1810-1850 (www.pbs.org).
The Amish are very dedicated to their faith and believe they should live their life like their savior. They do not believe in modern conveniences such as automobiles, electricity, and any other modern technology. “The Amish are also known as the “plain people” because they tend to separate themselves from the modern world” (Rearick, 2003).
Just like a dog needs a leash, so does Carnivore. Carnivore is a software program that the FBI has developed to aid in the collection of evidence. After obtaining the proper court order, the FBI connects the Carnivore system to the subjects ISP. The system then scans and collects emails only relevant to the subject of the court order. The issue surrounding the Carnivore is rather or not the system enables to the FBI to violate personal privacy, and that the FBI cannot be trusted with such a system. Those opposed believe that Carnivore violates Fourth Amendment rights and that the FBI cannot be trusted not to abuse Carnivore. The FBI believes that Carnivore is well within the bounds of the law and that they can be trusted with Carnivore. I believe that the FBI should be able to use the Carnivore system, but only under strict guidelines and oversight. Some government control needs to exist on the Internet or else any one could get away with anything on the Internet. But at the same time, the use of Carnivore needs to be controlled.
Waldman, Carl. “Tecumseh’s Rebellion and the War of 1812.” Atlas of the North American Indian, Revised Edition. New York: Facts of File, Inc., 2000. American History Online. Facts of File, Inc. Web. 3 March. 2014.
The Articles of Confederation were not the best laws Congress passed, nor were they the worst. The Articles, which was supposed to be the constitution of the United States, brought along terrible changes and numerous problems. In the Rhode Island Assembly’s letter to Congress, it stated that the Articles created a weak and unhelpful government, one that could not levy taxes, lacked the power to regulate interstate and foreign trading, could not enforce national policies; the list goes on and on (A). Because Congress could not control taxing, this eventually led to a poor army that lacked a leader to start an effective
Harriet was called a conductor she was quotes saying "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." A couple of years later Harriet married Nelson Davies. Harriet's husband, Nelson Davies died in 1888. Mrs. Tubman adopted Gertie Davies.
Since the founding of the United States, our outlook on the way it treats its citizens has not changed very tremendously. Apart from the abolishment of slavery, and various other corrupt practices which were fixed, well for the most part. The concept of birthrights and unalienable rights is not very farfetched, yet our government continuously attempts to impede these rights in an attempt that should not be tested. The right to privacy is a very serious concern and could be taken more heavily especially if it involves the safety of an individual or that of a nation, is no big difference, but the government should not go to the point of impeding our rights or freedoms to acquire these measures.
In this report I am going to talk about the rights people have to privacy and about the laws that go with privacy. Privacy is the thought that information that is confidential that is disclosed in a private place will not be available to third parties when the information would cause embarrassment or emotional distress to a person.
Privacy is one of the severe issue in today’s Modern Technology era, tied to human right around the world. Most countries have started thinking differently regarding between the people’s right and national security, and trying to leverage on new technology to detect potential national threats without hurting people’s privacy. However, there's a blurred line between privacy violation and government surveillance. (Sánchez, Levin & Del, 2012) It would be a learning process for governments to seek an optimum balance between retain integrity of privacy right and eliminate national threats in order to make the country better.
Government Surveillance today has changed from what it used to be. Technology has expanded through the past several decades and the government’s monitoring abilities have also expanded tremendously. Since the September 11, 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks, government surveillance has become more a part of everyday life. Government surveillance is said to help in efforts of capturing terrorists and stopping terrorist attacks before they even happen. But how much of our civil liberties are we giving up in order to maybe help capture some terrorists. The rapidly advancing technology of today and a more globalizing culture has made privacy and civil liberties come more into the forefront of our views. After about nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the government surveillance system put into place to keep the United States safe, is so massive that its effectiveness is becoming questionable.
As technology penetrates society through Internet sites, smartphones, social networks, and other modes of technology, questions are raised as the whether lines are being crossed. People spend a vast majority of their time spreading information about themselves and others through these various types of technology. The problem with all these variations is that there is no effective way of knowing what information is being collected and how it is used. The users of this revolutionary technology cannot control the fate of this information, but can only control their choice of releasing information into the cyber world. There is no denying that as technology becomes more and more integrated into one’s life, so does the sacrificing of that person’s privacy into the cyber world. The question being raised is today’s technology depleting the level of privacy that each member of society have? In today’s society technology has reduced our privacy due to the amount of personal information released on social networks, smartphones, and street view mapping by Google. All three of these aspects include societies tendency to provide other technology users with information about daily occurrences. The information that will be provided in this paper deals with assessing how technology impacts our privacy.
Wolf, Ulf. “Cyber-Crime: Law Enforcement Must Keep Pace With Tech-Savvy Criminals.” Digitalcommunities 27 Jan. 2009 .