An ode to Big Brother

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The internet is wondrous; it can be a source of great recreation, with entertaining videos, games, and online communities that have similar interests. It can be an amazing tool for learning, with vast amounts of free information and how-to videos. The internet is also great for replacing the now out-dated ways of communicating and staying in touch with family and friends, with e-mail and social networking websites. Sharing information has been made easier than ever; consequently, the collection of information has been made all that much easier. When there is so much information out there one would have to be crazy not to hoard as much of it as possible, right? This is of course referring to the United States’ very own NSA (National Security Agency). The NSA seems to have a hoarding complex as well as no regard for the any person’s privacy on the internet, including U.S. citizens. Having an agency dedicated on collecting information on foreign citizens is bad for foreign relations; some countries have even started to take action. Having that same agency also spy on their own citizens is tremendously worse for domestic relations, protests and rallies have been organized to raise awareness and attempt to put a stop to these heinous acts of privacy invasion. What is worse is that the United States government has been actively trying to pass bills and acts, in secret courts, to make the collection of all this data easier. The government attempts to justify these acts of privacy invasion by claiming that it is really for the protection of society. If there was a benefit to this mass collection of data it would be moot in comparison to all the unlawful activity and detriments spying on pretty much everyone causes. At this point the inter... ... middle of paper ... ...ot want to be spied on. The fact that there is such little benefit to what the NSA is doing one must beg the question, is the privacy of everyone on the internet worth the slim chance that all this collection of data could discover a terrorist plan before it happens and stop the plan from happening? We are unwillingly sacrificing our privacy for this endeavour, we have all of our data collected and stored, ranging from public statuses on Facebook to private e-mails you send, and even location data, such as where you are every minute of the day. It is akin to having someone follow you all day, every day, watching over your shoulder when you are on a computer or a phone, writing down everything you type and his only reason for doing this is because he can. The NSA has the resources to collect everything, find what is relevant later, and that is exactly what they do.

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