Why Wiretapping Is Bad

681 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethical aspects of electronic surveillance

“Almost 84 percent of all wiretaps in the US are used for drug-related conspiracies.” (Ambinder) Wiretapping can be proven to be a very valuable asset for law enforcement to use. But the US government should only be able to wiretap potential criminals or terrorists. Once that’s in place it’ll help prevent more crimes and it’ll also help to ensure that the government doesn’t abuse the power of wiretapping.
To first understand why we should have government wiretapping, we need to understand how wiretapping works and why it happens. According to Lee Adams, “Wiretapping first became a tool of U.S law enforcement in the 1890’s, but the Supreme Court didn’t establish its constitutionality until 1928, at the height of Prohibition.” (Adams) They would …show more content…

There is sufficient evidence to prove this claim. According to General Keith Alexander, “He testified today: ‘In recent years, these programs, together with other intelligence, have protected the U.S and our allies from terrorist threats across the globe to include helping prevent the potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11" (Parkinson). This quote was from Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency. In 2012, an Afghan-born man named Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting a terror attack on the NYC subway station, which was foiled. The NSA claims they used telephone data and internet information to track down the potential terrorist and many …show more content…

Clearly, wiretapping should only be used on probable criminals and terrorists. According to Wiretap Report 2016, “ Drug offenses were the most prevalent type of criminal offenses investigated using reported wiretaps… Conspiracy, the second-most frequently cited crime… Homicide, the third-largest category.” (Wiretap Report 2016) This shows all types of wiretapping mainly targets criminal and terrorist activities, but the government sometimes goes unchecked and get warrantless wiretaps, which is why we need a better-enforced system to prevent these wiretaps from happening. According to Kravets, “In 2001, the DoJ issued only 5,683 reported "original orders." Fast forward to 2011, the latest year for which data is available, the number skyrocketed to 37,616 – a more than sixfold increase.”(Kravets) They use these to track our email, to get information on our phone calls and text messages. As Americans, we shouldn’t allow the government to illegally wiretap us because there is a process they have to go through in order to get a warrant legally. And if they don’t go through that process, then we won’t know who they are actually spying

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of The National Security Agency

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    The National Security Agency or NSA for short is a United States federal government intelligence organization that is used for global monitoring and collecting data. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush implemented the NSA’s domestic spying program to conduct a range of surveillance activities inside the United States. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this program as it allows the NSA to tap into the public’s phone calls, cameras, internet searches, text messages, and many other mediums to seek out individuals that may be potential threats to the security of the general public. Many individuals say that the tactics used by the NSA are unconstitutional as they invade people’s privacy. This is primarily

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Wiretaps

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Domestic Surveillance Pros And Cons

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    The aftereffects of the September 11, 2001 attacks led to Congress passing sweeping legislation to improve the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. An example of a policy passed was Domestic Surveillance, which is the act of the government spying on citizens. This is an important issue because many people believe that Domestic Surveillance is unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy, while others believe that the government should do whatever is possible in order to keep the citizens safe. One act of Domestic Surveillance, the tracking of our phone calls, is constitutional because it helps fight terrorism, warns us against potential threats, and gives US citizens a feeling of security.

    Read More

  • The NSA, Privacy and the War or Terrorism

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    A short background on the laws concerning surveillance will help clear up some misconceptions on the NSA. Back in 1968, the Wiretap Act protected citizens from the government listening to their phone call...

    Read More

  • Privacy Is Not Privlege

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ots and in effect saved a great many lives, however Edward Snowden has stated that “Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.” We are in more danger of death by falling out of our bathtubs of being killed by the people who “protect” us than we are by being killed by a terrorist, and yet our government would ignore that, and use terrorism as a false pretense to freelance monitor its people.

    Read More

  • The Patriot Act vs Civil Liberties

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...vil rights and losing protection. Protection is more important but unnecessary spying should not be tolerated. “The sad truth is that most Americans have already lost the battle when it comes to keeping personal information absolutely private.”( Lee, M.Dilascio, Tracey M.4).

    Read More

  • US Government Monitoring Its Citizens

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • NSA Wiretapping

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    The NSA has been secretly ordered to eavesdrop by the Bush administration after the 9/11 terrorist attack. The base of where the NSA has been operating their wiretapping agenda is in Bluff Dale, Utah the building sprawls 1,500,000 square feet and possess the capacity to hold as much as five zeta bytes of data it has cost almost $2,000,000,000. The act of spying over the USA citizens even though they are suspicious is a threat to the people’s privacy and the privacy of other countries’ members are being infringed on by the NSA by the act of wiretapping. The action of wiretapping violates laws for privacy, like the Bill of Right’s Amendment Four which says “Every subject has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions”. The wiretapping controversy has caused the panic and hysteria of the citizens of the USA and USA’s allies. This panic and hysteria has troubled the government by resulting to mistrust and concern against them by both groups. The panic effect of the NSA wiretapping has caused many people such as journalist to have their freedom of speech to be restricted in fear of the NSA to stamp them as terrorist and according to the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights that is an infringement of the people’s right of freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief.

    Read More

  • Panopticon: Surveillance, Freedom and Fear

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although they claim that the mass surveillance will make America safer due to the potential prevention of terrorism, it does not have the power to entirely prevent all acts of terrorism. The issue is much more complex than simply tracking phone calls and Internet communications to prevent terrorism, and the National Security Agency has never successfully intercepted any major terrorist attack on the U.S. For example, during World War II, the U.S. government placed Japanese-Americans in internment camps in order to protect the American people. The only “crime” was that the people placed in the camps were of Japanese ancestry, even though they were American citizens, many of whom had never even been to Japan. Life in the internment camps was very harsh, and the government continued to have control over these innocent people, as any attempt to escape the camp would result in being shot. These camps acted as a control mechanism to “protect the people,” much like the Panopticon, and showed that the liberty of the people was determined by the

    Read More

  • Public Surveillance in the USA

    2230 Words  | 5 Pages

    The critical issue that needs to be addressed in the argument for or against the use of public surveillance system in the USA is which one takes precedence, viz, whether safety of the public and property at large or the invasion of the rights of the individuals who are subjected to some sort of interference in their privacy. In other words, does a citizen have an unfettered right to privacy even when it comes to issues relating to the enforcement of law in prevention of terrorist attacks, crime and restoring security and peace of the citizens at large? I propose to argue in this paper in favor of the need for public surveillance system by advancing the reasons for its imperative and take the view that it does not amount to prima facie violation of individuals' rights and in contravention to the rights guaranteed under the constitution...

    Read More

  • NSA paper

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    It's the stuff that spy novels are made of and calls to mind popular authors such as Ian Flemming, John LeCarre’, and Tom Clancy. Recent news articles about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance data-mining programs targeting US citizens are so far-fetched they read like good espionage thrillers. Unfortunately, these recent reports seem to be true based upon information from several whistleblowers including William Binney, Russell Tice and Edward Snowden. These brave individuals, who stepped forward risking their reputations, careers and personal safety, revealed that the NSA has engaged in wiretapping, monitoring, and recording phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media of US citizens. The United States government has been abridging citizens' rights to privacy and violating the fourth amendment of the constitution through these types of covert operations.

    Read More

  • Internet Privacy: Edward Snowden

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    VandenDolder, Tess. "You Had One Job to Do: The NSA Doesn't Actually Stop Terrorism." Politics News: Does the NSA Actually Prevent Terrorism? N.p., 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • Cell Phone Tracking

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cell phone privacy has become quite an issue over the past few years now that cell phone use is prevalent among most of the world. There have been many articles and news stories circling around about how the government is tracking every move on our cell phone. This includes the government and other entities recording our conversations. Many people view this as a violation of privacy because their expressed thoughts and feelings are being recorded and listened to by someone somewhere. Another ethical concern that this brings about is the violation of the privacy protections of the fourth amendment. Law enforcements officials have the right to access personal location data without giving probable cause to the judge (ACLU 1). While this can create an unnerving feeling I believe the government has taken these measures to keep the country safe. If the government can prevent...

    Read More

  • Ethical and Legal Issues of Phone Tapping

    3406 Words  | 7 Pages

    We can also have a different approach, which will make phone tapping a good thing for the community. The government uses phone tapping to investigate some people in order to keep the safety of the people or the community in a good condition. For example, if the government knew before the incident on 9/11 though the conversation of the terrorist, they would have saved a lot more people who died not knowing that they were targeted.

    Read More

  • Government Surveillance

    2041 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about Why Wiretapping Is Bad

Open Document