Digital Privacy Concerns

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Digital privacy concerns, which have been a major issue in our country since 2001, increasingly violate our basic human rights as global citizens. The growing amount of government surveillance has manifested in the enactment of acts such as SOPA and CISPA. Although their intent on stopping digital piracy and attacks were clear, both were immediately met with harsh criticism; they allowed big corporations to violate our privacy rights by sharing our personal information with both other companies and the government. Our President, although publicly expressing his acknowledgement of the issue, failed to discuss an array of other pressing dilemmas regulated by the recently exposed National Security Agency (NSA), especially those involving the mass data stockpiles and the rights of foreigners against immoderate and disproportionate surveillance by the US. Furthermore, the intentions of the NSA still remain unclear; why is the collection and the extended retention of this data useful? Those in power believe that the collection of this information allows them to preempt terrorist attacks; a very difficult claim to prove. Our lack of clear answers demonstrate the need for a larger audience who support government transparency. The NSA’s misconduct has dealt multiple blows to the rights of millions both at home and abroad, and the amount of secrecy involving this agency shrouds it in obscurity, inhibiting public debate about these crucial matters.

I strongly believe that the protection of our country should not come with the abandonment of our universal rights. Descriptive metadata, or the logging and collection of content into databases, has been taken in excessive amounts; unjustifiably being enforced by the NSA. Section 215 of t...

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Nations General Assembly Must Uphold Individuals' Right to Privacy"." Hrw.org. Human Rights Watch., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

PoKempner, Dinah. "PRIVACY IN THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE." Eurasiareview.com.

Eurasiareview, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014

"Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor." Pen.org. Pen America,

12 Nov. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. PDF File.

Mak, Tim, and Burgess Everett. "Dianne Feinstein on NSA: ‘It’s called protecting America’."

Politico.com. POLITICO, 6 June 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Lardinois, Frederic. "Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Yahoo, Microsoft, Paltalk, AOL And Apple Deny Participation In NSA PRISM Surveillance Program." Techcrunch.com. TechCrunch, 6 June 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014

"US: Urgent Need for Surveillance Reforms."Hrw.org. Human Rights Watch., 11 June 2013.

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