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Government surveillance and privacy issues
Government surveillance and privacy issues
Legal essays upon privacy and surveillance
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It is important to clearly establish what we are analyzing and how we are analyzing it. What is espionage? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014) defines espionage as things that are done to find out secrets from enemies or competitors, the activity of spying. Ethical is defined as involving questions of right and wrong behavior, conforming to accepted standards of conduct. The United States has not followed accepted standards of conduct in regards to its domestic and international surveillance techniques.
The initial document released by Edward Snowden was an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ordering Verizon to supply all of the metadata from their customers to the U.S. government on an ongoing basis. (Greenwald, 2013) At first glance this doesn’t appear to be too alarming. Metadata is strictly statistical data that identifies locations and length of calls, but doesn’t reveal the identity of the callers, or the content of the call itself. However, later documents released by Snowden reveal that this metadata was cross-referenced with other databases, which enabled the government to identify both callers. Furthermore, the government created software that analyzed the metadata to identify and track data patterns. (Roberts & Ackerman, 2013) Additional documents released by Snowden indicate that, through the creation of the Prism program, the government was able to conduct unlimited surveillance on Internet traffic through servers with Google, Facebook, Apple and others. Not only was the U.S. government using this data, but they were sharing it with allied countries. (Hopkins, 2013) Subsequent Snowden releases exposed that the U.S. was also spying on these allied countries. This is really alarming.
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...coded: Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations explained | World news | theguardian.com. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/1
Mollasalihoglu, A. (2013, December 14). Is it ethical for the US to spy on its allies? | Nouse. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/12/14/is-it-ethical-for-the-us-to-spy-on-its-allies/
Perry, D. L. (1995). Ethics, Espionage, and Covert Action. Retrieved from Journal of Conflict Studies website: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/Perry/repugnant.html#nine
Roberts, D., & Ackerman, S. (2013, June 6). Anger swells after NSA phone records court order revelations | World news | The Guardian. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/obama-administration-nsa-verizon-records
Guilford, CT: Dushkin/ McGraw-Hill, 1997. Chiatkin, Anton. A. Treason in America. Washington DC: Executive Intelligence. Review, a review of the book, Divine, Breen, Frederickson, and Williams. America Past and Present.
?Espionage.? 2000-2004. The War to End All Wars. Michael Duffy. Original Material. Primary Documents Online.
Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.
Sulick, Michael J.. Spying in America espionage from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the Cold War., Georgetown University Press, 2012
The Web. 4 Dec. 2013. Calamur, Krishnadev. A.P.S. & B.A.S. 5 Things To Know About The NSA's Surveillance Activities. NPR.com - "The New York Times" NPR, n.d. -
Keck, Zachary. "Yes, Edward Snowden Is a Traitor." The Diplomat. N.p., 21 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014
"The Triumph of Technique – The Logic of the NSA." LibrarianShipwreck. WordPress.com, 22 June 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
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...
It is important to not only know the two sides to the argument of a friend or foe, but to also know the facts as well. My goal in this paper is to present the facts without bias and to adequately portray the two sides of the argument. To give the full picture of Edward Snowden I must start with his role in the government. Edward Snowden never graduated from high school, nor did he graduate from community college (Yann 1). In 2003 he joined the U.S. Army briefly until he was discharged when he broke both his legs in a training accident (BBC 1).
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...
The world erupted in outrage following revelations by Edward Snowden regarding the extent of surveillance perform by the National Security Agency. Privacy becomes one of the hottest topic of 2013 and was chosen by the world’s most popular online dictionary, Dictionary.com, as the Word of the Year. However, the government is not the only one that conduct data gathering and surveillance. Employers often monitor their employees, and businesses collect data on theirs customer. The morality of these practices is a topic that generates heated debate.
Sherman, Spencer, and James Ball. "NSA Performed Warrantless Searches on Americans' Calls and Emails – Clapper." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
Espionage is the secret gathering of information on rival countries for military purposes. Espionage can be used in business, military, economic or political decisions however; it is commonly employed government for defensive tactics. Espionage or spying is illegal in many nations however, it gains profits from agencies to protect the secrecy of information that is desired.
Espionage is defined as the act or practice of spying.1 The term ‘industrial espionage’ , also known as ‘corporate espionage’ or ‘cyber espionage’, is the act of stealing trade secrets through the removal, duplicating or recording of highly confidential or valuable information in order to gain a competitive advantage. It is defined as the use of illicit means by more aggressive competitors to disrupt their rival’s operations or gain access to their sensitive information for a better competitive edge.2 While industrial espionage involves the theft of information for commercial purposes, which is obviously illegal, competitive intelligence is the legal gathering of information through conventional practices such as picking up scrap information through attending trade shows or through sources readily available i.e. corporate publications, patent filings and websites.3 Trade secrets are a form of intellectual property thus industrial espionage is most commonly linked with technology-heavy industries, especially in the computer and auto sectors where a great deal of money is splurged on research and development since technological change in this modern era has become a growing importance to business performance.
The aim of this essay is to link the shady and misunderstood world of international espionage with the public world of politics as well as reveal the role of espionage in international relations and states. This essay will also delve into the problem of individual privacy in terms of internal espionage.