Internet Privacy and Government Spying
Internet privacy is a concept that has been in the minds of many people across the globe for a long time. There are various laws passed by various governments to control as well as govern the idea of internet privacy. Technological advancements across the globe in the recent past have had a rise with the use of the internet. People have more access to gadgets with the power to navigate the internet with ease. It is also important to note that internet communication, something that used to be hard and complicated, has become a normal, everyday thing by the ease of access among most people across the globe. In short, one can argue that the internet has turned the world into a village owing to the ease of communication irrespective of the
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The ease of communication means that people can use the internet in very destructive ways. Terrorist groups can use the Internet in communication as well as planning attacks on various places across the globe. This means that the government has to make sure that it is vigilant in the quest to ensure that the internet is not used in a way that can pose a threat to national security. This paper will address the connection between internet privacy and government spying (Ferguson).
The 9/11 attacks on US soil changed the perception that people had about internet privacy. The attention was on consumer privacy issues resulting from commercial website operators using information gained from the use of various sites (Mathews and Catherine). However, following the attack, there was a need for the Congress to ensure that FBI can use a software program known as DCS 1000. It is important to note
NSA is a wire-tapping agency that is monitoring communications between the US citizens and people of foreign countries. Surprisingly, the internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Paltwalk, You tube, Skype, Apple and AOL are in this mix although they denied any involvement in the program. The US government under the name initiated the monitoring program under the name PRISM. Though the scheme was previously denied to exist, the US government confirmed of its existence June 7, 2013. The Prism project has been in existence since 2007 September and all internet communications through any kind of software can be monitored by this agency from the earliest windows version to the latest. NSA monitors every speck of communication. These includes emails, voice and video chats,
Over the years, there has always been a lot of controversy surrounding the topic of whether or not the government should be able to monitor our activity on the internet. This especially become a huge debate more recently simply because of the many terrorist attacks and dangerous events that we’ve encountered. Many believe that if the government was given more insight to what the people of this country looked at on the internet, then they would be able to prevent many horrible things from happening. On the other hand, however, others feel that this is a violation of personal privacy and therefore should not be allowed. The government already monitors our internet usage but they are thinking of increasing what they monitory which has lead to many differing opinions among the people of the United States of America.
Thesis: The United States Government must cease trying to reduce privacy and censorship on the internet, because it limits the right freedom of speech, builds mistrust towards the government, and it wastes resources better spent on other types of law enforcement.
The integrity of one’s communications and privacy of online activities is the largest casualty of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance over digital lives. Years since September 11, 2009, the NSA’s mass surveillance has greatly expanded due to the heightened concern that new technology can be used by terrorists to plan and execute a terrorist attack. In today’s age of technology, there are easier ways of accessing information and communication as well as new ways of hacking and gathering personal information. The new surveillance programs and regulations are enabled by the Patriot Act and post 9/11 paranoia, but it has been over fourteen years since the incident. After whistleblower, Edward Snowden, it was revealed that the government’s mass surveillance went beyond what many considered acceptable. It can be predicted that unless the U.S Government reins in NSA mass surveillance, the
Daniel Solove, a professor who specializes in internet privacy law, wrote this book to give his personal take on how the internet was transforming the way people connect through social mediums and how that could change in the future. An important thing to note about this book is that it was published in 2007, so some of the social and technological aspects of the book are slightly dated. Regardless of this though, this book provides an inquisitive perspective on the dynamic nature of the internet as a vessel of our society’s changing norms on privacy in the social sphere. Many of our learning points in class relate to topics discussed in this book and help to strengthen the context and significance of the underlying message.
People in the Western world live an individualistic lifestyle. They value personal achievement and privacy. Privacy is seen as a basic right in the western world, despite the lack of laws in place to protect the people 's privacy. The rise of new technology threatens people 's privacy, as they also assist the government 's effort in surveillance. Most people don 't realize every
When one begins research on surveillance, one commences to find that there is more to government surveillance than one may have first thought. Because of the countless diverse viewpoints on the issue of surveillance, it is difficult to imagine that the American people are satisfied with how the government conducts their various surveillance programs. Consequently, one might say that numerous Americans do not fully comprehend how invasive the surveillance programs are, and the amount that is used. Hence, the countless programs that the American government uses to collect American citizen’s private information, is not used for the greater benefit of the American people. Today, the American people have additional facts about government surveillance that they did not have several years ago. Americans were made aware of the extent of mass surveillance after a man named Edward Snowden leaked information, regarding mass surveillance, to the public. Therefore, one of the agencies that the government has authorized for surveillance is PRISM. PRISM is a code name for a program that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) uses to gather internet information from various national internet companies such as: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube and several other commonly known internet companies. In 2007, after the Protect America Act was passed, PRISM came into existence under the direction of the Bush Administration. It is an information collection method that is run under Section 702, which gained disrepute after Edward
"After the tragedy of September 9, 2011 and the subsequent passing of the Patriot Act, Government surveillance has expanded in the age of technology in which we currently reside. Although the stated mission of this increase in surveillance of American citizens was to prevent major terrorist incidents such as 9/11 from happening again, many people refute this stated purpose as the truly invasive extent of this surveillance was revealed within the statements of Edward Snowden, a defector from the National Security Agency. However, internet surveillance has proven to be necessary in the newfound pervasiveness of online forums and websites that contain large amounts of illegal activity such as child pornography. Altogether, I would say responsibility to
Recently as a result of the advancement in technology, the government must monitor what happens online. No longer do they not only have to monitor what happens in real time but what also happens within internet content, online post and websites. The Internet is a
The Analytical essay’s topic was focused on the Governments’ infringement on electronic/Internet privacy, and why it was important for citizens of the United States to protect their rights to privacy. I chose to revise this essay, because I am very interested in the subject of cyber security.
The amount of people connected to the internet along with the ease of connectivity with family and friends have become an easy target for the government agencies to gain insight of every individual lives whether a threat or not. Gone are those days when intel has to be collected by chasing suspicious target putting field agents at stake. The new era give teeth to the agencies but enabling people to unknowingly voluntarily give out information to companies they use products from. And since all the high tech companies popular today have their bases in the United States it become even easier for the government of America to monitor activities of potential threat under the umbrella of national security. The massive growth motivated intelligence agencies to bring change in the conventional method of surveillance. The interdependencies of the human and every changing technological advancement while bringing more and more infrastructure linked to internet be it sectors like financial, energy, retail or technology. By venturing in analyzing data America would abate any terrorist attack and help improve its internal securities from any hack attempt from Russia and China.
At that time, the citizens of the United States looked to their government for protection and a sense of security. The government responded with the war on terrorism, which eventually started taking away citizens’ civil liberties and right to privacy; in exchange for the suggestion of national security. Lisa Nelson, author of, “Privacy and Technology: Reconsidering a Crucial Public Policy Debate in the Post-September 11 Era,” considers “the exercise of political authority in the name of preventing harm informs the current public policy debates regarding the proper balance between technology and privacy” (259-260). During the time of the attacks, the Internet and technology were rapidly advancing and becoming part of citizen’s everyday lives. Though most users were leery to give out personal information initially, technology and the Internet evolved to be a normal part of most people’s everyday life. Eventually, users of the internet blindly gave out their personal information for ease of access; whether to make a purchase online or to access something on the Internet with terms and conditions. When users practice this behavior, they have opened the door for the ‘tracking’ of their online behavior, or even worse the vulnerability of their personal information being stolen. Jason Noble, the author of, “US debates security vs. privacy 12 years after 9/11: The search continues for the right balance between
The use of intelligence gathering efforts of the United States in clandestine operations incognito with significant levels of deception is often rarely open to the American public. The intelligence agencies’ empowerment by the Federal government continues their surveillance methods and information gathering techniques often without interference in the name of national security. Since the release of the intelligence gathering methodologies by the National Security analyst Edward Snowden, there has been a significant amount of public scrutiny regarding intelligence operations and concise scholarly research clarifying its controversial approaches. The circumstances that surround the implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act continues to center on the inability of the U.S. government to balance the legal authority of the USA PATRIOT Act with that of the right of the American public to privacy as the constitution affords.
As citizens of the United States of America, it is expected to feel a sense of security and privacy whether at home or elsewhere. This is why there is law enforcement that helps keep that sense of security and privacy locally while the military protects and keeps that same feeling internationally. With the advancement of technology, with the Internet especially some would think that reinforcing that feeling of security and privacy would be easy to do. But for quite some time now, we're learning that not only is this a complicated task but also in some cases you can have one but at the cost the other. For example some contend that security at the expense of privacy is not just un-American but unconstitutional. This paper will discuss some of
Throughout history the world has seen significant decreases in privacies. Lately in the United States of America, many citizens have expressed concern with the government's overreach in personal privacy. The National Security Agency and other government administrations have been criticized for their operations. With much criticism, the nation has been seeing a decrease in social networking users and an increase in hacking abilities amongst citizens. Many have questioned how farther the government and businesses will go but this can only be told through time.