The Importance Of Government Surveillance

The Patriot Act was hastily passed just a month later October and it severely limited the privacy of Americans and gave unprecedented power to the government and private agencies to track innocent Americans, turning regular citizens into suspects.5 In addition, the great technological evolution and emerged of social media that occurred round the same time, and shortly thereafter, created the perfect storm for the emergence of the largely unregulated surveillance society that we live in today.6 The result is digitization of people’s personal and professional lives so that every single digital trace that people leave can be identified, stored, and aggregated to constitute a composite sketch of ourselves and its only getting worse. In 2008, passed the FISA Amendments Act, which expands the government’s authority to monitor Americans’ international communications, in addition to domestic communications.7 In short, after 9/11 the U.S is left with a national surveillance state, in which “the proliferation of government technology and bureaucracies that are able to acquire vast and detailed amounts of digital information about individuals with minimal or no judicial supervision and often in complete secrecy,” giving the government and corporations with access to the data that the government compiles the ability to single

Government surveillance is made with the intent to keep American society safe, usually made in response to major terrorist attacks to prevent future terrorist attacks. After the tragic events of 9/11 the Us government took measures to prevent future terrorist attacks from happening. One major act enacted was the Patriot act.

Lately, in the United States, the controversial topic of privacy has been rekindled by several occurrences, including the recent NSA surveillance scandal. When government actions are questioned, the

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.

Spying on American citizens is now a common method employed by the government striving to protect the nation from terrorist attacks. Nonetheless, since its incorporation, the Act has been controversial as politicians and citizens alike have argued between the need to keep society safe and abusive powers of the government over its citizens. Although, mandated to serve as

Government Surveillance Be Quiet! The NSA is Listening! After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the United States (US) improved and tightened their surveillance on US citizens.(NSA Surveillance Programs: Are National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs constitutional?)

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.

The controversy on government surveillance is very controversial. Should the government have unlimited access to citizen’s personal information, conversations, and text in order to protect the country? Or should the government have more of a laissez-faire-type role in citizen’s private lifestyles? Across the world, there are different approaches on the government’s surveillance on people. Iceland’s policies are the least intrusive in the world, with almost no surveillance and laws protecting the people’s freedom of speech. On the other end of the spectrum is China, which is in the process of creating a constant surveillance system of all its citizens. Somewhere in the middle of this scale is the United States of America. Influences by other

One of the main purposes for government surveillance is to stop terrorists. However, it is not doing such a good job, which it was created for. Terrorists are still carrying out attacks in US and Europe despite the government having more access to surveillancing tools. Additionally, most of the terrorist plots that are uncovered are discovered through alternate investigation method not by government surveillance (Terbush). Two senators stated, "We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence" (Wyden and Udall). The two senators are questioning whether NSA is effective in their methods in gaining crucial information, saying there are no evidence

Thesis statement: Government surveillance should be stopped because it is an invasion of privacy and gives the government control that is not enumerated in the constitution.

The presence of national surveillance in the United States is a widely debated topic, and there are many positives and negatives to both sides. Although it has been operating for such a lengthy time, the true actions of the NSA were revealed recently in the Snowden Leaks of 2013. Many state that the NSA is good and necessary because they “have nothing to hide” and because it will prevent future terrorist attacks. However, others argue that the surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment and is useless. Even though there appear to be many pros of having the NSA operate as they currently do, they should be disregarded because such intrusive surveillance is unlawful, racist, and ineffective.

In an age of what appears to be increasing insecurity, Americans have to make a choice between being secure and maintaining civil liberties, or leaving it up to the government to decide. The privacy of Americans should be taken into more consideration when using surveillance and other methods to watch the people. Privacy today faces growing threats from a developing surveillance apparatus that is repeatedly justified in the name of the national security. Security is privileged over values, such as civil liberties after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Due to this horrendous event, the national government commenced its surveillance attack in hopes of stopping another terrorist outbreak from happening, but it only created a divide within the American people. The government is trying to rebuild the security that was lost (“Money”). Their plan involves increasing the surveillance, listening to phone calls, and monitoring people’s searches for keywords, and using the law to their advantage. These measurements are exaggerated and unnecessary in order to protect Americans. The government divided the nation through this act. In order to restore the nation to its proper standing, the first step to fix the nation should have been the Patriot Act, which was put into place after 9/1l, but it is the Patriot Act that actually started the divide of the people and government.

Over the decades, as technology advanced, surveillance became easier and easier. In the 21st century, people live in the world of ubiquitous surveillance, where everything becomes collected, saved, searched, correlated and analyzed. Surveillance generally means to keep close watch over someone or something. While a root word in surveillance is veil, which portrays imagery as saving face, or hiding. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and other federal agencies are engaging in the extensive surveillance to fight crime and reduce the threat of terrorism. Not only does surveillance fight crime, it proves the honesty and humility of people in the work office or on the streets. However, surveillance threatens privacy and liberty because it monitors individuals, meaning that certain information may not be kept secret. This frightens countless people because the thought of being watched sparks a controversy of the 4th amendment of the constitution. The 4th amendment protects the right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Surveillance challenges the privacy and liberty of individuals; nevertheless, it upholds the protection and security of citizens from terrorism and crime.

Surveillance occupies a major portion of the typical private investigator's day, and is one of their most important tasks. Here are a few hints and tips for any new or aspiring private investigator to help improve their surveillance skills:

You are being constantly watched and monitored. Not a terrorist? To bad! Enjoy having your personal information documented 24/7. The government is spying on you.Two years ago, revelations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden stated that the U.S. government was spying on Americans. Now is there anything regular people can do to stop the government from spying? Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a simple answer. There’s no way to completely block surveillance. Companies you may be familiar with, such as Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, Google, and Verizon mine your data for commercial reasons, but they end up giving it to law enforcement when asked. Staying private means keeping your data out of the hands of private companies that feed the government.