On Tuesday October 4, 2016, the international news agency Reuters published an article revealing that Yahoo Inc. had secretly made a custom program that scanned all of its customers incoming emails. The Article stated that this was done in compliance with a classified demand handed down from one of the intelligence Agencys of the United States. It goes on to further state that the program was discovered by a security team in May of 2015, when a security team thought that the yahoo system was being hacked. While legally permissible, it was morally wrong for Yahoo Inc. to create a program that scanned its users’ emails without their consent. This action defies Yahoo users’ moral right to privacy, as well as their moral right to informed …show more content…
This further break of user trust and treat to user data will be discussed later.
An article published by the New York Times on Wednesday October 5, 2016 stated that Yahoo had not created new software for the purpose of scanning its users’ content, but had adapted an existing filter, which was intended to scan for spam and child pornography. The article claimed that the government had requested the altered filter look for a ‘computer signature’ on emails that was reportedly tied to state sponsored terrorist organisations. It is important to note that in the article published by Reuters the sources were connected to or were former Yahoo Employees, and that in that article Reuters stated that its questions to the National Security Agency were directed to the Director of National Intelligence, which declined to comment. The Article published a day later by the New York Times the sources were two anonymous government officials.
Regardless of the nature of the content scanning program, the fact remains that it exists or existed in some form. Was it legal for the government of the United States to request that Yahoo create this scanning system? While the situation is questionable, the short answer is yes. In the United States, there are several laws and executive orders which permit the secret collection of data, including Executive order 12333 which was enacted by former president Ronald Regan , the USA Freedom Act which was a
Over the last several years, cyber attacks have been continually rising. This is in response to emerging threats from rogue nations and terrorist groups. They are increasing their attacks on government, military and civilian installations. According to James Clapper (the Director of National Intelligence) these threats have become so severe. It is surpassing terrorism as the greatest challenge facing the nation. In response, the National Security Agency (NSA) began conducting surveillance on those who are involved in these activities and others which are threat to US national security interests. This program became so broad; it started continually collecting phone records and emails on ordinary Americans. This angered many, who felt that the US was acting in a way that circumvented established legal guidelines and procedures. To fully understand what is taking place requires focusing on the event, the government 's response and the ways it did / did not meet our national security goals. Together, these different elements will illustrate what occurred and the lasting impacts on everyone. (Greenwald 2014)
This is just the beginning of new affiliated groups that are emerging and making the world a more dangerous place. Many American as still unaware of the amount of cyberspace attacks against our most sensitive networks of information and that we are suffering in the technology department in keeping up with these attacks. Even though collecting information is vital for the security of our country we have to be careful in protecting civil liberties. The citizens need to be better informed of exactly what and how data information is used. Without the proper education to the public, the government will continue to have opposition in regards to the collection of this data. Congress also needs to be less resistant to reforms that need to be implemented. The more time that goes by between events makes citizens become complacent with regards to the urgency of preventing future
Page: “No, he’s proposing that we just stop following them. Apparently the requirement to capture texts came from omb, but we’re the only org (I’m told) who is following that rule. His point is, if no one else is doing it why should we.”
Before the Obama Administration was in charge of secretly collecting phone records and accessed the internet activity of many, there was the Bush Administration. In late 2005, President George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency. With this organization, they are able to monitor phone calls and emails without court permission. Just a year later, public support for the
The Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act: this is the acronym of the generally known USA Patriot Act. The Patriot act was presented on October 26, 2001 by George W. Bush after the terrorist attack of September 11. This act was implemented with the intended end goal that by giving power to the Justice Department regarding domestic and international surveillance of electronic communications, it would help prevent incidents like September 11 from occurring again (WhatisUSApatriotAct). The Patriot Act was intended to help government agencies fight against terrorism by catching it before it happens.
Google Inc., American search engine company founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Google handled 70 percent of worldwide online search requests, placing it at the heart of most Internet users’ experience. Even though Google’s essential core business is search service, it now offers more than 50 percent Internet services and products from Gmail and online document creation to software for mobile phones and tablet computers. Google successfully maintained its core competence meanwhile expanded its business to advertisement and application three major core businesses. Its success in market levitates Google’s growth by acquiring other tech companies as a way of horizontal integration. For example, its 2012 acquisition of Motorola Mobility put it in the position to sell hardware in the form of mobile phones. Google’s broad product portfolio and size make it one of the top influential conglomerate companies in the high-tech market place. Google plays a very vital role in ICT ecosystem and it is one of the forces that enhance the growth of entire ICT ecosystem. For further illustrating the ICT ecosystem, I chose Apple and Comcast as device and Internet infrastructure firm to compare and contrast against Google.
The NSA performed an unlawful invasion of privacy by using web encryption. Technologist, Christopher Soghoian, states that the NSA used supercomputers to gain access to encryption that provides online privacy and security. “The encryption technologies that the NSA has exploited to enable its secret dragnet surveillance are the same technologies that protect our most sensitive information, including medical records, financial transactions and commercial secrets” (qtd. in Winter). Christopher’s explanation of the encryption technologies describes how anyone could be affected by this surveillance. This is considered unlawful because the NSA hacked technologies that protect our private information. This affects the security of the nation knowing that it is possible for someone to gain access to information that people have once though were private to them. This is not the first time that the NSA has tried to gain access to private information. In fact, “For the past decade, NSA has led an aggressive multipronged effort to break widely used internet encryption technologies”
Students walk college campuses thinking of homework, friends, social happenings, but rarely thinking about their safety. Students on college campuses are defenseless against an armed assailant because an armed assailant can shoot and harm many students in a short time before the police arrive. There are opposing views about allowing concealed weapons on college campuses, and the debate has been making news lately with the number of school shootings and people getting killed and injured rising. According to Robert Birnbaum in The Magazine of Higher Learning, “More Guns advocates argue that college students and faculty should be able to carry weapons for their own protection, particularly since history has shown that colleges can’t protect them from assailants” (Birnbaum 7). For students to properly defend themselves against armed assailants, they should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.
Who spy or who? What is that that you call illegal methods? Don't be so dumb. It is not my fault I have a brain to make deductions no dumb human can make. Whoever is writing this emails make me wonder how much of a brain there is.
The classic story Animal Farm by George Orwell is a historic, social, and political story that has had a major impact on the literary world. Orwell employs the literary devices of allegory, satire, and literary fable. Political satire is abundant throughout the book. The story also unmasks the influence of corrupt power and abusive leadership over the less fortunate. Animal farm has the universal theme that power can be used for ultimate good or absolute evil. This essay focuses on the use of satire and symbolism to express values of a society.
Ever since the government began to grow in size, conspiracy theorists who used to be laughed at, once believed the government is watching them through their devices (Oddly like the telescreens of 1984.). However, much to the disbelief of many, except the aforementioned theorists who saw it ahead of time. The government was and has been watching people through their messages online. The way they did this was through 9 of the most popular website firms in the nation. All of this was through a program known as PRISM. The Guardian reports, the NSA formed PRISM, a program which allowed our government to collect search history, emails, file transfers, live
The U.S. Government has turned the Internet into something it was never intended to be: a system for spying on us in our most private moments. Out of control government
And with 3 billion phone calls made and 150 billion emails sent to and from the United States every day, the collection of this personal data without specifying the limits to their searches is unclear and unjust. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo among many others have recently, under protection from the Obama administration, revealed details as to the statistics of government collection. Even our nation's biggest telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, were obliged to work with the NSA, lately disclosing information on the filtering equipment they were necessitated to use. The storage of this data for prolonged periods of time also makes these companies and their users vulnerable to security breaches such as theft and attack by hackers; for example, the cyber-security firm Trustwave discovered a server on November 24, 2013 which contained the information of over 318,000 accounts on Facebook. This breach was evidently made possible by companies storing data for an unnecessary amount of time as well as a weakened encryption standard. Both were implemented and enforced by the NSA, and the forced retention this data for over five years not only renders this metadata vulnerable to theft or misuse, but has also not been proven to be notably valuable in thwarting terrorist attacks.
Google is the most successful information technology and web search company in the world. It was founded in 1998 by two Stanford Ph.D. students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company name, Google, is a play on the word “googol” which is a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose this name to reflect the large amount of information on the web. The two created this search engine so that people can find anything on the web all in one place. The company’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Now, the company is far more than a search engine website, it has grown to be a substantial collection of products and services that are
According to Fuad-Luke, (2009) Design activism is the process of ‘design ideas, creativity and technique that carried out intentionally or unintentionally to develop a counter-narrative intended at creating and managing constructive social, institutional, ecological and/or economic revolution.’ The Design Activists have a prominent effect on the society in a way that the designs produced by them have a deep relationship with the culture and different kinds of people perceive their ideas in a different way. The design ideas could range from a very small advertisement to a large signage system to save lives of people in critical situations. As designs also have a greater impact on our thoughts, so everything appears to us through a different angle, thus revealing the nature in different ways as well. The concepts of design, which are to be used for activism, are still very narrow and it has created many problems and confusions in the minds of the people. By having conceptualized designs any designer can promote activism for social movements, whereas misleading design ideas can create a lot of social and economic problems. By having accurate and robust designs the ideas of people will get clear and design activism will be easily accessible within the field of design. The vision lies in the motion and therefore a lot of design activists are enhancing their designs to a benefit the communities and improving the environment and on the other hand the designs, which