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Government surveillance issues
Government surveillance issues
Government surveillance in the united states
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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.
What is the historic context of surveillance, whose current form is electronic? We now know that the N.S.A. has no fewer than 46 surveillance programs (three in conjunction with the UK’s GCHQ) as described by surveillance reporter Julia Angwin (2014). For example:
Prism collects data from the servers of U.S. technology companies
Squeaky Dolphin (UK) monitors YouTube video views, URLS "Liked” on Facebook and Blogger visits
Bullrun, a joint UK and US program weakens cryptography (2014, chart)
Surveillance, however, is as old as man. Anthony Zurcher (2013) for the BBC said, “Chinese general Sun Tzu [in 544 - 496 BC] wrote…‘Enlightened rulers and good generals who are able to obtain intelligent agents as spies are certain for great achievements’" (Zurcher, 2013). Surveillance has been around for centuries.
Ancient Rome had mechanisms for surveillance. The eavesdropping, of course, was done directly by people with no electronic mediation. Col. Rose Mary Sheldon (2000) of the Virginia Military Institute wrote that supply sergeants were employed to collect information because they came and went openly in the course of distributing grain. H...
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... E. (2011). The net delusion. The dark side of internet freedom. New York, NY, USA: PublicAffairs.
Poitras, L, Bonnefoy, M., & Wilutzky, D. (Producers), & Poitras, L. (Director). (2014, October 24). Citizenfour [Motion Picture]. United States: The Weinstein Company.
Sheldon, Col. R. M., Virginia Military Institute. (2000). Military History Quarterly, Autumn,pp. 28-33. Retrieved from http://www.historynet.com/espionage-in-ancient-rome.htm#sthash.iSybKnYa.dpuf on 11/29/2014.
TEDSalon. (2014, June). Hubertus Knabe: The dark secrets of a surveillance state. TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/hubertus_knabe_the_dark_secrets_of_a_surveillance_state? on 11/17/2014.
Weber, P. (2013, June 12). 6 reasons you should, and shouldn't, freak out about the NSA data-mining. The Week. Retrieved from http://theweek.com/article/index/245461/6-reasons-you-should-and-shouldnt-freak-out-about-the-nsa-data-mining on 11/29/2014. how we should balance national security with civil liberties.
Zurcher. A. (2013, October 31). Roman Empire to the NSA: A world history of government spying. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24749166 on 11/29/2014
The United States has lived through an age of terrorism and the citizens have come to realize that they would rather ensure the safety of the masses than protect their privacy. Works Cited Cunningham, David. A. "The Patterning of Repression: FBI Counterintelligence and the New Left." Social Forces 82.1 (2003): 209–40. JSTOR.com - "The New York Times" Oxford Journals.
Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.
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.
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...
[37]The use of surveillance is seen many times in 1984, they had the telescreens and the thought police.
Current advancements in technology has given the government more tools for surveillance and thus leads to growing concerns for privacy. The two main categories of surveillance technologies are the ones that allow the government to gather information where previously unavailable or harder to obtain, and the ones that allow the government to process public information more quickly and efficiently (Simmons, 2007). The first category includes technologies like eavesdropping devices and hidden cameras. These are clear offenders of privacy because they are capable of gathering information while being largely unnoticed. The second category would include technologies that are used in a public space, like cameras in a public park. While these devices
Penenberg closes his essay by mentioning that the surveillance is not only used to watch the citizens but also for citizens to keep an eye on the government. Through his organization, relevant information, and professional tone, Penenberg creates an effective
The attacks on American soil that solemn day of September 11, 2001, ignited a quarrel that the grade of singular privacy, need not be given away in the hunt of grander security. The security measures in place were planned to protect our democracy and its liberties yet, they are merely eroding the very existence with the start of a socialistic paradigm. Benjamin Franklin (1759), warned more than two centuries ago: “they that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Implementing security measures comes at a cost both economically and socially. Government bureaucrats can and will utilize information for personal political objectives. The Supreme Court is the final arbitrator of what the ‘law is”, causing a lack of circulated rule. The actual leaders with political purposes jeopardize our individual privacy rights, liberties, and freedoms.
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 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. -
Most people concerned about the privacy implications of government surveillance aren’t arguing for no[sic] surveillance and absolute privacy. They’d be fine giving up some privacy as long as appropriate controls, limitations, oversight and accountability mechanisms were in place. ”(“5 Myths about Privacy”). The fight for privacy rights is by no means a recent conflict.
Moving away from Foucault and Bentham, David Lyon has made a quest for other surveillance theories. He writes, “It seems clear that some constructive contributions to surveillance theory are needed. Surveillance theory cannot ignore the panopticon but it can surely move beyond it” (12). The direction as to where to turn is still an ongoing debate. Some have not strayed far and have turned to Foucault’s governmentality, others have turned to an Orwellian model, Deleuze, Baudrillard, Zizek, Arendt and Kant to name a few. This paper will turn to Henri Lefebvre and his book Production of Space as Lefebvre has become in vogue in surveillance theory and later in this paper will be useful in discussing helicopters and how occupy Mike Davis’s idea of Los Angeles creation of a ‘defensible space’.
Privacy is not just a fundamental right, it is also important to maintain a truly democratic society where all citizens are able to exist with relative comfort. Therefore, “[Monitoring citizens without their knowledge] is a major threat to democracies all around the world.” (William Binney.) This is a logical opinion because without freedom of expression and privacy, every dictatorship in history has implemented some form of surveillance upon its citizens as a method of control.
However, government agencies, especially in America, continue to lobby for increased surveillance capabilities, particularly as technologies change and move in the direction of social media. Communications surveillance has extended to Internet and digital communications. law enforcement agencies, like the NSA, have required internet providers and telecommunications companies to monitor users’ traffic. Many of these activities are performed under ambiguous legal basis and remain unknown to the general public, although the media’s recent preoccupation with these surveillance and privacy issues is a setting a trending agenda.
In the modern day era, we find in society a ubiquitous usage of technology that seems to be never ending and forever growing. Included with this notion, the broad subject of surveillance is of course included. Contemporary surveillance, or more specifically technological surveillance, has been described as ambiguous; meaning that it is often misunderstood or open to different interpretations. The representation of surveillance within popular culture has played an impacting role on how we as a society perceive it and this raises certain questions that may reflect back on to society. The 1998 film Enemy Of The State directed by Tony Scott, Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight is considered to be a ‘spy-thriller’ blockbuster. Its central themes explore a range of surveillance techniques and equipment and also provides some insights, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, into the real life security organisation; The National Security Agency (NSA). Using this film as an example and analysing how these themes are represented will hopefully allow us to key these ideas back to modern surveillance theories and practices.