Technology is in everything we do from using our home refrigerator, washer, cellular device, automobile, and or computer systems. When using certain devices you could potential pass information out to others pertaining to your personal private information. This information could be bank account and credit card numbers, pins, and or passwords. We unconsciously don’t even realize that we could be sharing this information. We give out information that is randomly requested when we walk into a dentist office or doctor’s office, the local liquor store, or when we are using social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Yahoo, and or Google. This is all collected, stored, and tracked by big brother, and what is our government doing with it and how are they securing this data?
What is most surprising to me is that most Americans did not even recognize the National Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting data on Americans personal telephones and electronics devices for several years. This had been happening way before the NSA Analyst Edward Snowden leaked these facts to the world in late 2013. The NSA was created in 1950’s and during this time frame the NSA disseminated intelligence information from electronic signals for foreign and counter intelligence purposes that supported our military needs. Now the NSA has refocused their spying tactics with the current technology changes and has an extensive “telephone-metadata program, since 2001, and has collected the phone records of virtually all Americans” (Lizza, 2013).
“In addition to phone records and email logs, the NSA uses Facebook and other social media profiles to create maps of social connections -- including those of American citizens” (Simpson & Brown, 2013). The NSA spends “$25...
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...anization. Retrieved from http://www.niso.org/publications/press/RFP_Writers_Guide.pdf
Labott, E., & Shoichet, C. (2013, October 28). NSA spying claims: Five things you need to know. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/politics/nsa-spying-key-questions/
Lizza, R. (2013, December 31). The metadata program in eleven documents. THE NEW YORKER, Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/12/a-history-of-the-metadata-program-in-eleven-documents.html
Musil, S. (2013, December 10). NSA said to use google cookies to track surveillance targets. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57615206-38/nsa-said-to-use-google-cookies-to-track-surveillance-targets/
Simpson, D., & Brown, P. (2013, September 30). NSA mines Facebook for connections, including American’s profiles. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/us/nsa-social-networks/
Edward Snowden is America’s most recent controversial figure. People can’t decide if he is their hero or traitor. Nevertheless, his leaks on the U.S. government surveillance program, PRISM, demand an explanation. Many American citizens have been enraged by the thought of the government tracing their telecommunication systems. According to factbrowser.com 54% of internet users would rather have more online privacy, even at the risk of security (Facts Tagged with Privacy). They say it is an infringement on their privacy rights of the constitution. However, some of them don’t mind; they believe it will help thwart the acts of terrorists. Both sides make a good point, but the inevitable future is one where the government is adapting as technology is changing. In order for us to continue living in the new digital decade, we must accept the government’s ability to surveil us.
According to John W. Whitehead, “The fact that the government can now, at any time, access entire phone conversations, e-mail exchanges, and other communications from months or years past should frighten every American.” (Whitehead). The NSA
In early June 2013, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former defense contractor who had access to NSA database while working for an intelligence consulting company, leaked classified documents reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is recording phone calls of millions of Americans along with gathering private data and spying foreign Internet activity. The Washington Post later broke the news disclosed PRISM, a program can collect data on Internet users. The leaked documents publicly stated a vast objection. Many people were shocked by the scale of the programs, even elected representatives were unaware of the surveillance range. A nationwide debate over privacy rights have been sparked. Although supporters claim that the NSA only does its best to protect the United States from terrorists as well as respecting Americans' rights and privacy, many civil rights advocates feel that the government failed to be clear about the limit of the surveillance programs, threatening Americans' civil...
Emord,JonathanW. "NSA's Spying Eyes--And Ears." USA Today Magazine 142.2820 (2013): 57. Master FILE Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Facebook is Using You – claims that our information is being tracked and stored in large databases, which eventually are used either for our benefit or mostly for our disadvantage.
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke. When using the web, web users’ information tend to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that enforces companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advisements on social media about how web users can be more cautious to what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining,
With social media websites being the main hub of personal information, advertisers are consistently monitoring our social media activity, having the ability to look into our personal information. In the article "Advertising and Consumer Privacy: Old Practices and New Challenges." by Justine Rapp states, “Fueled by advances in capabilities and interconnectedness of computer based technology, advertisers are able to collect and assimilate information on consumers like no other time history” (51). Facebook has become the number one, social media website around the globe. It is the most popular website used by personal and business users in today’s society. In the article “Using Social Media to Reach Consumers: A Content Analysis of Official Facebook Pages” by Amy Parsons states, “As of July 2011, the social network site Facebook claims to have over 750 million members and in the terms of activity.” (27), making it easy to meet and connect with others. Facebook is considered the “hot spot” for online social activity, however, it exposes personal information about its consumers to
The NSA or the National Security Agency, is “the largest intelligence agency in the US, which is responsible for collecting and analyzing communications and signals intelligence, plus cybersecurity” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1-2). Since its inception, “the very existence of the National Security Agency was not revealed more than two decades after its establishment in 1952” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1). and since “its structure and activities remain largely unknown. Hence its wry nickname: No Such Agency” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par.1). “Once President Harry Truman established the NSA, its purpose was to collect data and information across the country and internationally. The task originally gi...
“There are about 3 billion phone calls made within the USA every day” (Romano). Now picture you’re calling your friend on the phone. Sometimes we can take small privilege like this for granted. Now imagine that the government is listening to every single phone conversation that we make. Why wouldn’t this scare you? I know it terrifies me. Wiretaps are a problem that concerns every single person in the country. But it isn’t just wiretaps; with a program called Prism the NSA has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple, and other US internet giants (Glenn). Everything we search for on Google, every message sent or received on Facebook, every item purchased on Apple is all seen by the NSA. The government is overusing their power to spy on its citizens and it needs to stop.
Therefore, Facebook is powered by a curiosity that feeds one’s desire to know about their friends and therefore perform surveillance activities. We are all encouraged to be “Facebook stalkers” and to expose ourselves, getting rid of our privacy and making room for visibility. Social media is more than keeping touch with friends and family, it is about curiosity, surveillance and control. We are constantly being monitored and monitoring others. Social media has made us willingly become visible to anyone who wants to observe, putting our privacy at stake, as we also reinforce this behaviour by doing the same to others. It has become a perfect monitoring system, as everyone is aware of what everyone else is doing with their lives in a very entertaining and addictive manner.
MacAskill, G. G. (2014, April 28). NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-2%20Special%20trail:Network%20front%20-%20special%20trail:Position1
The American government used to be able to keep the people in happy ignorance to the fact that they watch every move they make. After certain revelations of people like Edward Snowden, the public knows the extent of the government spying. On June 5, 2013 Edward Snowden leaked documents of the NSA to the Guardian (The Guardian 2). The whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the world how the American government collects information like cell phone metadata, Internet history, emails, location from phones, and more. President Obama labeled the man a traitor because he showed the world the illegal acts the NSA performs on US citizens (Service of Snowden 1). The government breached the people’s security, and now the people are afraid because everyone is aware of how the US disapproves of people who do not agree with their programs. Obama said that these programs find information about terrorists living in the US, but he has lit...
There has always been surveillance of the general public conducted by the United States government, the usual justifications being upholding the security of the nation , weeding out those who intend to bring harm to the nation, and more. But the methods for acquiring such information on citizens of the united states were not very sophisticated many years ago so the impact of government surveillance was not as great. As a result of many technological advancements today the methods for acquiring personal information - phone metadata, internet history and more - have become much simpler and sophisticated. Many times, the information acquired from different individuals is done so without their consent or knowledge. The current surveillance of people
A major reason the U.S. needs to increase restrictions on the type and amount of data collected on individuals from the internet is due to the fact that the United States government can track communications and browsing histories of private citizens without warrant or cause. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ...
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.