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Government surveillance and privacy issues
Government surveillance and privacy issues
How does government surveillance affect privacy
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Impeach the NSA
The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.
Edward Snowden said this just last year in 2013. The unconstitutional atrocity that is the NSA (National Security Agency) has not been ended since then. America and likely the world is being monitored by an agency of the United States government that has the ultimate power, information. Leaders and workers of the NSA should be punished heavily for millions of violations of the Bill of Rights and misappropriation of tax payers money.
A man named Gordon Adams who used to be a White House budget official stated that the budget for the NSA probably exceeds twenty billion dollars a year. While this number is not exact, because it cannot be due to the secretive nature of the NSA, the source is most likely close. In other words, the NSA drains twenty billion dollars from American tax payers to disservice the American tax payers. NSA Deputy Director John C. Inglis admitted that the NSA is permitted a “three-hop analysis” which means that if an American is the friend of someone, who is the friend of someone, who has a potential Egyptian terrorist on their Facebook friends list, the NSA can be investigating the American, in full. Imagine someone had 1 friend. Now imagine that friend has an average amount of friends and so do their friends. The one friend (1st degree of separation) will link them to one hundred and sixty three new people (2nd degree of separation), all of the ...
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...r, Daniel. "Tone-Deaf at the Listening Post." Foreign Policy. N.p., 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
"How the NSA's Domestic Spying Program Works | Electronic Frontier Foundation."Electronic Frontier Foundation. EFF, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
Team, Guardian US Interactive, Kenton Powell, Greg Chen, and Gabriel Dance. "Three Degrees of Separation: Breaking down the NSA's 'hops' Surveillance Method."Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
"NSA Program Stopped No Terror Attacks, Says White House Panel Member." NBC News. National Broadcasting Company, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. .
How would you feel if everything you did on the internet, every text you sent, and every call you made was seen by someone? That is what the NSA is doing right now. According to Wikipedia, the National Security Agency is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.[1] They have been a controversial topic since the 1970s when it was revealed that they had been wiretapping Americans’ telephones. Their surveillance has only grown since then, even though most Americans disagree with it. [2] The NSA’s domestic surveillance is unconstitutional, ineffective, and a violation of privacy that needs to be stopped.
Frieden, Jeffry A., David A. Lake, and Kenneth A. Schultz. World Politics. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. Print.
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.
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
Walt, Stephen. "Top 10 Warning Signs of Liberal Imperialism." Foreign Policy. N.P, 20 May 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
The feeling that someone is always watching, develops the inevitable, uncomfortable feeling that is displeasing to the mind. For years, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been monitoring people for what they call, “the greater good of the people” (Cole, February 2014). A program designed to protect the nation while it protects the walls within as it singles people out, sometimes by accident. Whether you are a normal citizen or a possible terrorist, the NSA can monitor you in a variation of ways. The privacy of technology has sparked debates across the world as to if the NSA is violating personal rights to privacy by collecting personal data such as, phone calls and text messages without reason or authorization (Wicker, 2011). Technology plays a key role in society’s day to day life. In life, humans expect privacy, even with their technology. In recent news, Edward Snowden leaked huge pieces from the NSA to the public, igniting these new controversies. Now, reforms are being pressed against the government’s throat as citizens fight for their rights. However, American citizens are slammed with the counterargument of the innocent forte the NSA tries to pass off in claims of good doing, such as how the NSA prevents terrorism. In fear of privacy violations, limitations should be put on the NSA to better protect the privacy of our honest citizens.
Whether the U.S. government should strongly keep monitoring U.S. citizens or not still is a long and fierce dispute. Recently, the debate became more brutal when technology, an indispensable tool for modern live, has been used by the law enforcement and national security officials to spy into American people’s domestic.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Shiraev, Eric B., and Vladislav M. Zubok. International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Silver, Larry.
The Patriot Act has been under scrutiny and opposition since its creation following 9/11. When 9/11 struck it was clear that Americas intelligence was lacking in some specific way, but it was translated that America needed greater allowance for gathering information. The Patriot Act was signed on October 26, 2001, very close to 9/11. It can be concluded that the Patriot Act was signed with such extreme ability’s applied, because of how close it was signed after 9/11. The Act Greatly expands the liberty’s if law enforcement in their efforts to gather information, which in turn imposes on the privacy of the American people. The FBI has the ability to study any citizen suspected of terrorism, and has access to all their information. Wire Taps and other invasive action are allowed and granted by the Patriot Act. Was the Patriot Act signed to quickly? Are its measures to extreme? When is the line drawn on how much power the government can have? Is the Patriot Act effective enough that it is necessary? Should we as Americans willing to trade freedom for safety? Can the Patriot Act effectively stop or hinder terrorist attacks; has its stopped enough attacks to be validated? Another question is does America want a government that has that much power, how much are we as Americans willing to sacrifice, and how much more liberty’s is the government going take. If the government can pass the patriot act, what other legislation can they pass? In reality it all comes down to the American people, we are democracy but do we have the power in are hands? When finding all these questions one asks do we need an act that is in fact this controversial? Is the Patriot Act a necessary evil? To find this answer we have to answer all the questio...
Domestic Surveillance Citizens feeling protected in their own nation is a crucial factor for the development and advancement of that nation. The United States’ government has been able to provide this service for a small tax and for the most part it is money well spent. Due to events leading up to the terrifying attacks on September 11, 2001 and following these attacks, the Unites States’ government has begun enacting certain laws and regulations that ensure the safety of its citizens. From the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to the most recent National Security Agency scandal, the government has attempted and for the most part succeeded in keeping domestic safety under control. Making sure that the balance between obtaining enough intelligence to protect the safety of the nation and the preservation of basic human rights is not extremely skewed, Congress has set forth requisites in FISA which aim to balance the conflicting goals of privacy and security; but the timeline preceding this act has been anything but honorable for the United States government.
here’s also a calendar on the phone, with all the information about where we have been and where we are planning to go. All this information is private and sensitive and this has to be protected carefully from criminals and hackers.
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...
That’s My Tracker.”, written by Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan, indicates that the, “...tracking device that happens to make calls...” are exploiting our identities far more than we know (Maass and Rajagopalan,P.129). It was shared that cellphone carriers disclosed and “...responded 1.3 million times last year to law enforcement requests for call data...” without warrants (Maass and Rajagopalan,P.129). These reporters enlighten that all the “explosion of GPS technology and smartphone apps...” as well as “...frictionless sharing...”or “...surveillance has caught our attention so much so that it blinded us from the ugly truth (Maass and Rajagopalan,P.129). In actuality, modern technology such as cellphones and surveillance cameras allow the government to know of it 's citizens location, conversations, and actions—“...treasured by police departments and online advertisers...”(Maass and Rajagopalan,P.130). The mania of technology and “...these invasive services have proved irresistible to consumers…” writes Paul Ohm (Maass and Rajagopalan,P.129). He states that the overly advertised technology is like a magnet to consumers because it continues to be bought and sold regardless of the facts
Dimitter, Lowell. World Politics. 1st ed. Vol. 55. New York: Johns Hopkins UP, 2002. 38-65.
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, ...