Big companies have to worry about government surveillance as well. Even as far back as May of 2006, seven years before Snowden leaked NSA data, it was reported that the NSA had been tracking phone calls using the resources of several major telecom companies, and a couple of weeks later it was revealed that it had given access to At&t’s fiber-optic lines back in 2002, meaning that they were able to directly access the phone information of millions of Americans (Vicens 29)! Government surveillance isn’t just limited to phone companies, though. It was reported in 2007 that some big companies like Microsoft had started participating in an NSA program to give the government data from live chats, and many other big companies also agreed to hand over …show more content…
information from their instant messaging programs (Vicens 29). Many companies also have something fairly recent that makes the NSA more interested in getting their data than before.
Many people are familiar now with the fact that certain websites will track your search history and base advertisements on the things that you are looking for, and while that idea seems harmless at first, it becomes clear that those companies don’t really have anything to stop them from using that information in a more harmful way, or giving it to the government (Drum 69). That doesn’t mean that companies are happy about surveillance, though. In fact, there is an entire website about government surveillance called “Reform Government Surveillance” created by large companies including AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo!, and Microsoft (Ribeiro 13). Like many people, these companies are upset with the current policies the United States is using in regards to surveillance. Big corporations aren’t the only ones upset, …show more content…
though. The leaders of other countries were perhaps the most outraged when they found out about what the NSA was doing.
Specifically, Brazil and Mexico were incredibly agitated by the surveillance programs, outright claiming that the United States was spying on them (Hayden “Beyond Snowden” 20-21). Dilma Rousseff is the President of Brazil and she was absolutely sickened by the leaks of what the NSA is doing to survey Latin America, making speeches reflecting her outrage toward the United States and even cancelling a previously scheduled visit to Washington DC (“The Surveillance State and Its Discontents” 66). Mexico and Brazil are not complete victims, though, and President Barack Obama made this very clear when he talked about the fact that many countries upset about our surveillance programs do the same thing under the table (Hayden “Beyond Snowden” 20-21). Dilma Rousseff was right to be mad, though, as the NSA does not treat data from other countries the same way that it treats information from the United States. The data of other countries is virtually unrestricted to the NSA, and this is a gigantic problem since most of the world’s communications go through the United States, meaning that the NSA monitors information from almost every other country in the world in great detail (Stray np). The reputation of the United States created by the surveillance programs it has put in place may never fully
heal. At the center of this massive debate is the one man who risked it all to simply tell us the truth. Edward Snowden’s name has become almost synonymous with the term government surveillance, and almost any argument you hear about the NSA will also be about the actions of Snowden. In 2013, articles in the Washington Post and Guardian were published regarding several NSA programs regarding surveillance, and the supplier of this information was Edward Snowden (“Securing Our Liberty” 5). The story of Snowden’s leaks starts on December 1, 2012, when he first contacted journalist Glenn Greenwald with the alias “Cincinnatus” in hopes of getting to speak to him through PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption services. Snowden also contacts Laura Poitras, another journalist, later on and soon he begins to speak to both of them through Off-The-Record (OTR) chat, and gives them a small taste of NSA files, asking them to come to Hong Kong to receive everything. After Greenwald makes arrangements with Guardian to fund his trip, Greenwald goes to Hong Kong and learns everything there is to know about the NSA and its programs, and later writes the article about it (Greenwald 9-18).
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.
Is the American government trustworthy? Edward Joseph Snowden (2013) released to the United States press* selected information about the surveillance of ordinary citizens by the U.S.A.’s National Security Agency (N.S.A.), and its interconnection to phone and social media companies. The motion picture Citizenfour (2014), shows the original taping of those revelations. Snowden said that some people do nothing about this tracking because they have nothing to hide. He claims that this inverts the model of responsibility. He believes that everyone should encrypt Internet messages and abandon electronic media companies that track personal information and Internet behavior (op.cit, 2014). Snowden also stressed to Lawrence Lessig (2014) the importance of the press and the first amendment (Lessig – Snowden Interview Transcript, [16:28]). These dynamics illustrate Lessig’s (2006) constrain-enable pattern of powers that keep society in check (2006, Code: Version 2.0, p. 122). Consider Lessig’s (2006) question what is “the threat to liberty?” (2006, p. 120). Terrorism is a real threat (Weber, 2013). Surveillance by social media and websites, rather than the government, has the greater negative impact on its users.
“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.
Taylor, James Stacey. "In Praise of Big Brother: Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Government Surveillance." Public Affairs Quarterly July 2005: 227-246.
The people’s apprehensiveness does not come from the government’s ability to monitor their phone calls. It is the idea that they are listening to their individual conversations. The government needs to communicate to its citizens on the capabilities of the program. Most of the information on the limits of PRISM has come from the data leaks of Edward Snowden. The common consensus is that the government is able to access information by merely advising a meeting with a judge that is not withheld to the public. However, contrary to the popular belief that they are listening to phone calls, they are merely collecting the date and length of each phone call (Stray).
The twenty first century in the century of technology, where technology is heavily used in the people daily lives. One of the field where technology is being utilized in is monitoring people through cameras and phone calls. Although it might be interfering with people privacy, but it has its advantages that might outweigh the disadvantages. This essay will discuss both points of view, and try to decide which one is more reasonable than the other.
All the developed countries (developing countries are also in no way lagging behind) the incidence of the people being monitored under various surveillance systems is high of which closed circuit television system (CCTV) is gaining dominance. For instance, the UK has over 4.2 million of them, giving it a ratio of one for every 14 persons and the USA is reported to have been installing it on a rapid pace in every conceivable location as town centers, schools, public transportation systems etc with a spiraling budget estimated at $100 million. With the terrorists attacks looming large in the wake of 9/11 attacks and despite the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the trends are going towards more and more technology oriented surveillance methods. This has naturally caused widespread concerns about the privacy issues and necessitated more evidence based research to inform policy and practice.
...ompanies’ databases without our awareness—much less our approval—the more deeply the Net is woven into our lives the more exposed we become. In order to stop online tracking, we have to take personal responsibility for the information we share and modify our privacy settings. We have to get bills and regulations passed by congress so laws can be made to limit corporations from tracking and sharing our personal formation and discipline and take action upon any corporation that does not abide by the rules.
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...
People tend to believe that everything on their social media accounts are private and controllable by their privacy controls alone. Privacy is a misconception because social networks are never completely private. Outsiders can gain some access to a user’s personal information through websites, including hackers, identity thieves, advertisers and employees of the network. Several social network sites have ways for consumers to protect themselves from an average user without coding or hacking capabilities. They typically provide their users the ability to set privacy settings. This means that the individual can add, or block anyone from viewing their account. Also the individual is capable of limiting the access to specific photos, or posts on
The inevitable truth about our technological advances has become an ongoing controversial dilemma. It begs to question whether or not our technology is taking us closer to the world of Big Brother. It even subjects us to address all the pros and cons this said technology, as a whole, has to offer. These days when people talk to each other, some no longer share eye contact because they are too busy on social media, texting, checking emails, looking for the next big thing, and so forth. Many people are blinded by the fancy & entertaining applications, availability of gps, and most importantly, being able to surf the web at the palm of their hands, but little do they know that those
According to the CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust almost the whole German public knows something about Edward Snowden and more than every third has reacted and is now protecting his or her online privacy and security better than before the NSA revelations. Every second person in Germany is more concerned about privacy than before and only 15% still think that their private information is safe online. The NSA disclosures have also destroyed the trust in the United States. Only 13% would now trust the United States to be a big part of running the Internet
Video cameras are being deployed around the nation to help with crime solving, but some people are concerned about their privacy. Having cameras to monitor public areas have shown to be useful in situations such as identifying the bombers of the Boston marathon in early 2013. There have also been issues with these cameras however, as people are concerned they are too invasive of their privacy and have been misused by police officers in the past. Some people want to find a balance in using cameras in public so that they can continue to help with crime solving while making sure they are not too invasive and are properly used.
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 by the United States government is unethical because it is done so without consent and it infringes on a person’s rights to privacy and personal freedom.
On one hand privacy is valued but on the other privacy has to end. Mainly it ends when it comes to terrorist threats and many times pedophiles. Things that offer a danger to society, within in this context many argue that Internet surveillance is needed. The protection of innocent people outweighs the need of individual Internet privacy. Glen states in his article, “An open society, such as the United States, ironically needs to use this technology to protect itself. This truth is naturally uncomfortable for a country with a Constitution that prevents the federal government from conducting "unreasonable searches and seizures (Glenn 2012).” In the time of technology and the risk of spreading terrorism, humans cannot afford Internet privacy. As data or possible data about home born terrorist can be collected and be readily available because of technology. Then the other issue is pedophiles. Sir Iain Lobbon (2013) believes “"allows us to reveal the identities of those involved in online sexual exploitation of children.” Programs like NSA allow the surveillance to catch sex offenders. Maybe even the hope of preventing them actually damaging a child and committing offence.