Government Surveillance

Addressing government surveillance in so broad a medium as the internet necessitates some background information. There are a few key moments to identify. Prior to 9/11, Congress enacted FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. “Congress originally strictly limited FISA's scope so that it could only be used if ‘the primary purpose’ of government surveillance of Americans was foreign-intelligence gathering”; following the 9/11 attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, “amended FISA and significantly weakened this limitation,” enabling the government to demonstrate a significant purpose for surveilling nationals for foreign intelligence (Shamsi 7). The events of 9/11 shook the world, instilling a desire among American and other

Adam D. Moore argues in his essay “Privacy Security and Government Surveillance” that it is “important to note the risk of mischief associated with criminals and terrorists compared to the kinds of mischief perpetrated by governments—even our government. In cases where there is a lack of accountability provisions and independent oversight, governments may pose the greater security risk” (Moore 146). Forfeit of individual privacy yields to an overstep of government. Moore cites FBI operations performed by the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) “designed to infiltrate, disrupt, and if possible eliminate groups that were deemed to be enemies of the American way of life” (Moore 144). The grievances to this program took the it to federal court, where “Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General found that ‘COINTELPRO was responsible for at least 204 burglaries by FBI agents, the use of 1,300 informants, the theft of 12,600 documents, 20,000 illegal wiretap days and 12,000 bug days’” (Moore 144). Government abuse is an issue that average citizens tend to overlook, but that deserve

Even prior to the information release by Edward Snowden, a survey conducted for Allstate insurance and National Journal, the following results were found: “Of 1,000 Americans surveyed this year [2013], 55 percent perceive a ‘mostly negative’ impact from the collection and use of personal information […] Two-thirds complain they have little or no control over information collected about them, […] the poll found that only 48 percent of Americans trust how governments, cell-phone companies and Internet providers use that information” (Price 914). When less than half of the country trusts governments, something must