Persuasive Essay On National Surveillance

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" Technology around the world today is burgeoning at an extreme rate. From smartphones to laptops, almost all U.S. citizens carry some form of technology. With so many Americans carrying technology today, the frightening truth is that the American government has full control over this technology. A decade before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the government has been using a secret national surveillance system to monitor American’s phone calls. However, even with this national surveillance system, the U.S. government was unable to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although the American government does have an important duty of monitoring internet content, the government needs to establish certain limitations on internet monitoring to respect the …show more content…

The American government believes that the use of this national surveillance system has kept America relatively safe for the years following 9/11. But the real question that needs to be answered is: How does the American government determine whether internet communications are related to espionage, terrorism, or criminal activity? Although it is the government’s duty to protect American citizens from terrorism, there needs to be a compromise between government internet monitoring and the personal privacy of American citizens. A compromise that would satisfy both the American people and the U.S. government, would be if there was a surveillance system that would be able to search for keywords or other kinds of data that related to espionage, terrorism, and criminal activity in internet traffic. To further ensure the privacy of the individual, the governmental organization conducting surveillance would need some sort of approval from a judge and would be only allowed to listen to the individual’s conversation during a certain period of time. If more suspicion is arising, then the government would have the freedom to monitor the individual’s internet freely. This would be similar to the idea of probable cause. If there is enough suspicion, then the government should be allowed to search freely, similar to how if a policeman has enough suspicion through probable cause, then he or she has the right to search freely without a

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