In today’s world, we have a huge database that we all refer to as the internet. So many things can be found on the internet such as how to walk your dog or how to fix your broken TV. There are several networks on the internet that many teenagers use to communicate with each other or to simply talk about their day. These networks are known as social media networks, like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. On many of these social media networks, there are many issues involving the privacy of their users. Occasionally, users may find that someone has hacked their account and is posting false information or that somebody is trying to “catfish” them. The term catfish can be defined as a person who uses someone else’s identity, or creates their …show more content…
Gonchar states, “Three-quarters said they approved of the government’s tracking phone records of Americans suspected of terrorist activity. Nearly the same number approved of the United States’ monitoring the Internet activities of people living in foreign countries” (Gonchar 6). Based on another article published on a website titled Monthly Review, Lauren Regan talks about some ways on how the government could surveillance electronic communications. “Email messages can be intercepted and then reformatted to be sent to the intended recipient or someone else altogether”, Regan explained. With this being said, Lee Rainie and Mary Madden wrote an article designed to display some of the feedback from their surveys they conducted to several Americans. In the survey “Americans are divided in their concerns about government surveillance of digital communications”, 17% of Americans said they are “very concerned” about government surveillance of Americans’ data and electronic communication; 35% say they are “somewhat concerned”; 33% say they are “not very concerned” and 13% say they are “not at all” concerned about the surveillance (Rainie/ Madden 4). These surveys do show that the majority of the survey - takers feel that their privacy is being invaded by government surveillance but there is no possible way that we can determine that the statistics are accurate because Rainie and Madden did not specify what group of Americans took part in this
Though the consequences of citizen’s actions through technology today are not as severe or are non punishable, they do not take the government’s surveillance as seriously as the citizens of Oceania did in 1984. One NSA system can reach about 75% of all US Internet traffic, communications by foreigners and Americans (Gorman n. pag.). The US government's defense to surveillance claims is that the justification is National Security (Calamur n. pag.)., and this may be true, but the question of the freedom to privacy ratio, as a free nation, is still undecided. One way surveillance is now even more accessible is due to Google Glass. "With Google Glass, nobody's pointing a camera... phone. You no longer know if you're being filmed... an unspoken social rule is being violated" (Brown 42). and gives the government the ability to see from the point of view of anyone. With most every person you meet having quick access to some sort of recordable technology, it is easy to have your actions recorded or documented without your knowledge. The information can be easily spread around the world without your knowing or permission with just a simple touch. As said before, “.....an unspoken social rule is being violated” (Brown 42), taking away the sense of privacy and security felt by many Americans. Another form of surveillance, used by specifically the NYPD, is the use of undercover cops. Since The Occupy Wall Street
During the past decade, an issue has arisen from the minds of people, on which is more important? Privacy or national security? The problem with the privacy is that people do not feel they have enough of it and national security is increasing causing the government to be less worried about the people. National security is growing out of control which has led to the decrease in people’s privacy and has created fear in the eyes of U.S. citizens. “Twelve years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and amid a summer of revelations about the extent of the surveillance state built up to prevent others, leaders, experts and average Americans alike are searching for the right balance between security and privacy” (Noble). Americans should be able to live their daily lives without fear of an overpowered government or a “big brother” figure taking over. “According to a CBS News poll released Tuesday evening, nearly 6 in 10 Americans said they disapproved of the federal government’s collecting phone records of ordinary Americans in order to reduce terrorism” (Gonchar). While it is good to keep our country safe with security, American’s privacy should be more important because there is a substantial amount of national security, the people 's rights should matter first.
On June 6, 2013, The Guardian published a story about the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Internet surveillance program, PRISM (Greenwald and MacAskill 2013). The story was based on documents leaked by one of the most successful whistle-blowers in American history, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents that Snowden has released up to this time have shown the NSA to be heavily engaged in the collection of personal Internet activity, bulk collection of telephone "metadata," and other forms of surveillance that have brought U.S. intelligence practices into question.
On June 6, 2013 the details of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance activities where given by Edward Snowden to the public; raising concerns of Americans about their privacy. Edward Snowden, a former employee of the NSA, gave the alarming details of surveillance programs in his interview on how the NSA accesses our emails, calls, internet activity, and anything else that is related to technology. In this system of surveillance the NSA can gather data from companies and tap the cables that are vital for moving around information from technological devices, they may also use their relationships with technology companies to get emails or information straight from U.S. servers. (Cawley, Kiss, Boyd, Ball) Nevertheless, the claim is
The quest for privacy and security has always been a long and arduous one, as America’s citizens “no longer care” about the lack of integrity which the American government is showing towards its citizens (Sullivan). “When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.” Sullivan explains in Privacy under attack, but does anybody care?. After the National Security Agency was accused of “systematically collecting information” on citizens’ phone calls, emails, and countless other sources, “the news media treated it as a complete revelation” (Whitehead). People throughout the country protested and condemned the government—all while they failed to realize that we have consciously permitted the government to collect and secure our private information by “giving our personal information” to companies who ask for it, and by “allowing our personal lives to be posted on media sources such as Facebook and Twitter” (Washington). Ironically enough, we ourselves have
Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.
National polls taken before the events of September 11th revealed that the possibility of entities abusing the technological system in place and the possible exploitation of this loss of privacy frightened Americans a few months ago. According to the survey, a vast majority of Americans, nearly 84% a year ago, were concerned about businesses or individuals gathering information on themselves or family members and 54% of Americans considered themselves "very concerned"[2]. Americans were
The Thesis of The Patriot Act’s Impact on the Government’s Ability to Conduct Electronic Domestic Surveillance of Ongoing Cosmetic Communications by Nathan C. Henderson outlines that the American populous, more specifically the representatives said populous elects, should proceed with hesitancy when approving laws that allow privacy to be breached in the name of national security. Henderson asserts, in the article’s thesis, that The Patriot Act opens the door to the United States Government to breaching the privacy and extraneously surveilling citizens with no connection to terrorism. Moreover, the article maintains that,
Dingwen Zhang English 3 12 August 2016 NSA Surveillance NSA Surveillance: Is safety worth losing freedom? Recently there is debate about if it is okay for the United States government to spy on citizens using NSA and FBI. This became common knowledge when Edward Snowden leaked millions of documents that show the government is spying on the public. The United States government should not keep the NSA surveillance going because it hurts the public more than it keeps the public safe.
In “How the NSA’s Domestic Spying Program Works,” the author reveals that many of “aspects of the (NSA) Program were aimed not just at targeted individuals, but perhaps millions of innocent Americans never suspected of a crime.” The author develops his thesis by detailing a few examples of major telecommunication companies that share customer’s call records to the NSA (AT&T, Sprint) and explaining that programs were implemented to monitor the emails of citizens (“amounted to at least 1.7 billion emails a day”). The author uses examples of how NSA decisions were made without a “warrant or any judicial oversight,” in order to increase citizen awareness of how the NSA functions. The author uses a erudite tone to address the audience of Americans
“The Surveillance Society,” by Adam Penenburg explains the impact that the attacks on September 11th, 2001 had on usage of technological surveillance of the American people. Penenburg writes that the assault on U.S. soil caused a great shift between privacy and policy causing a bill to be signed into law granting the government easier access into our emails, web history, and even phone calls. Even with all the surveillance, Penenburg claims that people could care less because in a time of turmoil because they care deeply about safety. Surveillance can be used to convict criminals, stop car thieves, and prevent terrorism. The constant surveillance increases the amount of information available on every single person but is extremely difficult
The majority of U.S citizens believe that the government spies on everyone’s and anyone’s emails and that they intercept phone calls, text messages, and social media. But, in fact, the NSA has certain rules and laws set in place in order to make sure they don’t do such a thing. The NSA also doesn’t intercept everyone’s email, phone calls, texts, and social media, they only investigate certain people that they believe may pose a threat to the peace. In an article regarding if the NSA was acting within the law, stated,”The National Security Agency's collection of telephone and other communication data has been done entirely within the law; Americans are not being spied upon. The country's various intelligence programs operate with strict oversight and accountability, and those who work in such agencies are committed to protecting the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans" (Clapper para. 1). This proves that the NSA isn’t spying on everyday Americans, but, in fact, protecting the privacy and the liberty of
Keeping the United States of America safe from foreign threats is far from an easy task. However, preventing domestic threats is a much more complicated and delicate one. Government organizations such as the National Security Agency [NSA] are known to have invaded our privacy through our connection to technology. The NSA has publicly admitted to the surveillance. Due to media coverage, the NSA is often viewed as the main agency that bulk collects data. Emails, phone calls, and even our text messages have been surveilled under an NSA program known as “PRISM” (“Domestic Surveillance Techniques”). Everyday government organizations invade our privacy for the sake of national security in an attempt to defend us from domestic threats, but it seems they often take surveillance a step too far. United States citizens should understand legality of these actions, as well as the purpose this data collection serves.
Government surveillance in the past was not a big threat due to the limitations on technology; however, in the current day, it has become an immense power for the government. Taylor, author of a book on Electronic Surveillance supports, "A generation ago, when records were tucked away on paper in manila folders, there was some assurance that such information wouldn 't be spread everywhere. Now, however, our life stories are available at the push of a button" (Taylor 111). With more and more Americans logging into social media cites and using text-messaging devices, the more providers of metadata the government has. In her journal “The Virtuous Spy: Privacy as an Ethical Limit”, Anita L. Allen, an expert on privacy law, writes, “Contemporary technologies of data collection make secret, privacy invading surveillance easy and nearly irresistible. For every technology of confidential personal communication…there are one or more counter-technologies of eavesdropping” (Allen 1). Being in the middle of the Digital Age, we have to be much more careful of the kinds of information we put in our digital devices.
People make phone calls, and send emails all the time. These things are usually private and involve small groups of people. However, we have discovered that phone calls and emails are not as private as one may think. The government and the National Security Agency (NSA), have been spying on citizens and collecting data from the calls made and text messages and emails sent. Though they say they are doing this for our safety and to detect terrorists, the NSA has not caught many terrorists with the methods of surveillance they are using. NSA methods are ineffective and have not produced adequate results to justify their damage to civil liberties.