Carnivore
No one can speak for all Americans in deciding the trade-offs between equal protection of the laws, privacy, and fearless exercise of democratic freedoms. - Rob Geis
Envision a future where every action you make is recorded and reviewed by unknown means — A world where a government spies on its own citizens more frequently than other nations — A government that reads everyone’s email, in order to try to thwart unpreventable actions. Does this sound like a science fiction story? Well it is not; this is a reality according to civil libertarians. Ever since the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) program, named Carnivore, was introduced to the world in 1999, civil libertarians have been up in arms claiming that Carnivore violates civil human rights. This claim and others about Carnivore are shortsighted, because there are misconceptions about Carnivore itself. Carnivore is not a vicious wolf, eating its prey (email) at will; it is a harmless puppy, which can barely open its eyes; I will go into some detail on what Carnivore is, why it causes commotion, and why it is inadequate to do any good. It is the role of any government to protect its interests and its citizens. Carnivore does not live up to its expectations, but if used effectively can capture some criminals.
History of biting
Carnivore is a third generation on-line protection program. In “How Carnivore Works” by Jeff Tyson, he states, "While information about the first version has never been disclosed, many believe that it was actually a readily available commercial program called Etherpeek" (Tyson, 2). The second generation, Omnivore, was deployed in 1997. Information about Omnivore has not been public until recently. The third generation, DragonWare Suite, was introduced in 1999 which contains three parts, “[1] Carnivore - A Windows NT/2000-based system that captures the information. [2] Packeteer - No official information released, but presumably an application for reassembling packet into cohesive messages or Web pages. [3] Coolminer - No official information released, but presumably an application for extrapolating and analyzing data found in the messages” (Tyson, 2). In short, Carnivore is a program within the DragonWare suite that captures email packets from Internet Service Providers (ISP's) in order to prevent criminal actions that are conducted through email. According to Tyson, “The FBI plans to use Carnivore for specific reasons. Particularly, the agency will request a court order to use Carnivore when a person is suspected of: Terrorism, child pornography/exploitation, espionage, information warfare, or fraud” (Tyson, 5).
Communication surveillance has been a controversial issue in the US since the 1920's, when the Supreme Court deemed unwarranted wiretaps legitimate in the case of Olmstead v United States. Since telephone wires ran over public grounds, and the property of Olmstead was not physically violated, the wiretap was upheld as lawful. However, the Supreme Court overturned this ruling in 1967 in the landmark case of Katz v United States. On the basis of the fourth amendment, the court established that individuals have the right to privacy of communication, and that wiretapping is unconstitutional unless it is authorized by a search warrant. [Bowyer, 142-143] Since then, the right to communication privacy has become accepted as an integral facet of the American deontological code of ethics. The FBI has made an at least perfunctory effort to respect the public's demand for Internet privacy with its new Internet surveillance system, Carnivore. However, the current implementation of Carnivore unnecessarily jeopardizes the privacy of innocent individuals.
The debate around Carnivore is not really about Carnivore itself. It is more of a debate of whether or not Carnivore oversteps current privacy laws and the Fourth Amendment. Carnivore is a software program that enables the FBI to filter and collect email on a subject of a court order to be used as evidence. The issue around Carnivore started when the ACLU and other such groups demanded a review of the system in 2000. Since then, there has been a Congressional review of Carnivore. The FBI believes that Carnivore is well within the bounds of the law and that such a system is necessary to fight crime on the Internet. Advocates of privacy such as the ACLU believe that Carnivore violates Fourth Amendment rights and that the FBI cannot be trusted not to abuse Carnivore. In return, the FBI believes that the public should trust the FBI with electronic surveillance.
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.
...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).
...for that individual is the nation as a whole if all individual rights are observed then the rights of your public have taken care of themselves. “We can have as much or as little crime as we please; depending on what we choose to count as criminal.” Herbet L.Packer.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, once said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” In America’s society today, some are willing to sacrifice their civil liberties in order to gain protection and security over some potential threat. Especially after the events of September 11th and several attempted bombings in U.S. cities. This sacrifice of individual freedoms such as the freedom of speech, expression, the right to information, to new technologies, and so forth, for additional protection is more of a loss than a gain. Citizens of the United States deserve equal liberty and safety overall, as someone should not have to give up one value in order to gain another. This concept of individual right goes beyond the simple idea of “individual comfort.” Personal liberties cannot be surrendered and are not to be compromised since these liberties are intangible. Individuals should not have their personal liberties exchanged for national security because individuals are guaranteed protection to these rights.
Critical incidents are snapshots of something that happens to a patient, their family or nurse. It may be something positive, or it could be a situation where someone has suffered in some way (Rich & Parker 2001). Reflection and analysis of critical incidents is widely regarded as a valuable learning tool for nurses. The practice requires us to explore our actions and feelings and examine evidence-based literature, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice (Bailey 1995). It also affords us the opportunity of changing our way of thinking or practicing, for when we reflect on an incident we can learn valuable lessons from what did and did not work. In this way we develop self-awareness and skills in critical thinking and problem solving (Rich & Parker 2001). Critical incidents ???
1-William Shakespeare. King Lear edited by Russle Fraser.(New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1982). All future references will come from this text.
Ever since day one, people have been developing and creating all sorts of new methods and machines to help better everyday life in one way or another. Who can forget the invention of the ever-wondrous telephone? And we can’t forget how innovative and life-changing computers have been. However, while all machines have their positive uses, there can also be many negatives depending on how one uses said machines, wiretapping in on phone conversations, using spyware to quietly survey every keystroke and click one makes, and many other methods of unwanted snooping have arisen. As a result, laws have been made to make sure these negative uses are not taken advantage of by anyone. But because of how often technology changes, how can it be known that the laws made so long ago can still uphold proper justice? With the laws that are in place now, it’s a constant struggle to balance security with privacy. Privacy laws should be revised completely in order to create a better happy medium between security and privacy. A common misconception of most is that a happy medium of privacy and security is impossible to achieve. However, as well-said by Daniel Solove, “Protecting privacy doesn’t need to mean scuttling a security measure. 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”)
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. The Tragedy of King Lear. Second edition. W. W. Norton & Company. New York. London 2008.
Definitions of reflection vary depending on the discipline of the author. Having reviewed the literature, Bulman (2008, p.2), a nurse, defines it as “reviewing an experience from practice so that it may be described, analysed, evaluated and used to inform and change future practice”. It is a personal process requiring honesty, openness, self-awareness, courage and a willingness to act on criticism. It acknowledges that feelings and emotions influence actions. Critical reflection involves in depth examination and questioning of personal, social, historical, cultural and political assumptions and perspectives that are embedded in actions. It is an active process enabling one to make sense of events, situations and actions that occur in the workplace (Oelofsen, 2012). It transforms a situation in which there is confusion and doubt to one that is clear and coherent (Dewey, 2010).
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Vol. Vol. 46. PSU- Hazleton, Hazleton, PA 18202: Electronic Classics Series, n.d. Print. Part 3 of 51.
Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978.
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.
Civil libertarians celebrated a small victory on September 2001, when a federal appeals court judge, Alex Kozinski, ordered the administrative office to withdraw software tracking the online activities of all employees in his Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Because the recent September 11 terrorist attacks heightened national security paranoia, bureaucrats in the court’s administrative office proposed a surveillance policy entailing unrestricted administrative review of emails and Internet use of all 30,000 federal court employees, including judges. The panel of judges decided that the policy unreasonably assumed that employees had no expectation of priva...