The Internet Is A Surveillance State By Bruce Schneier

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.

The internet provides us with a vast amount of information right at our finger tips but manages to not display the negative effects that it has. The internet can be utilized in ways that assist our everyday lives as well as making simple tasks even easier. How has technology altered our daily lives? Individually there is an excessive reliance on technology to function daily, but has this adjustment been beneficial or are we positioning too much reliance on the Internet? Nevertheless, it is essential that we are cautious with how frequently our dependence is on the internet considering it is not as secure as it may appear. The value of our privacy requires a tradeoff that we must continue if the desired utilization our technology will continue.

    Abstract:  This paper provides an analysis of the privacy issues associated with governmental Internet surveillance, with a focus on the recently disclosed FBI tool known as Carnivore. It concludes that, while some system of surveillance is necessary, more mechanisms to prevent abuse of privacy must exist.

It’s a bright Sunday morning; the birds are chirping, the smell of fresh coffee is in the air and you turn on the tv; “Another Leak Of All Verizon Users Personal Information Out On The Web” is today's headline on the news. In our society right now; the government has the utmost power; yet they might not be using their powers in ways you’d expect. If you're a daily electronic users at Urbandale High School who spends at least 30 hours a week using online functions for entertainment or work; then you might not have heard or seen what the government's been doing recently. In an in depth analysis shows that our life we’re living right now could be seen as a dystopian universe over 50 years ago. Yet as our nation advances, its being advanced in

The internet represents a medium for both liberty and control. However, it can be used a a tool of control and dominance, increasing governmental power, enhancing government ability to monitor its citizens and potentially control individuals. the NSA uses supercomputers to hack even encrypted systems. This opens a wider door for hackers; it leaves us more vulnerable to being hacked by others, and not just the

Technology is taking over the world as we know it. Orwell predicted that technology would take control of citizen’s lives and make them have no privacy, and honestly that is not so far off. Governments can access these devices and look at what people learning, looking at, and who they are talking to. There is not much that a citizen can hide from their government. Citizens do not have as much privacy as they did even just twenty years ago. With technological advances, the world could follow the story of George Orwell’s 1984. Video surveillance is something that the government uses also, although it is not as harsh as in George Orwell’s story, but still citizen’s privacies are being invaded. According to Alex Abdo, there is a United States owned database filled with every Americans information and every one of his or her associations (Abdo). Even the United States, which is considered a country built upon freedom, is monitoring its people. The American government even tries to follow everything that its citizens do. Governments even have 64 federal websites that are helping them follow their people’s browsing and buying habits (Zuckerbrod). Governments are using their websites to monitor what people are doing. This way the government can know everything from their people’s hobbies to who their best friend is. Technology is helping the government take away their citizens privacy.

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.

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.

The government has been monitoring and regulating an every day’s persons website history and what we buy and look at on the Internet. With the Internet growing rapidly and the amount of users on the Internet increasing, the easier it is for the government to find out peoples’ interests. Many people argue whether or not we should have vigorous rules and regulations when it comes to the Internet. One of the main concerns people have when it comes to their Internet is their privacy. There are many people who want to do harm using the tools that the Internet provides us with. The Internet should be regulated but not as harsh as some

Today, society is affected by the many advances in technology. These advances affect almost every person in the world. One of the prevalent advances in technology was the invention and mass use of the Internet. Today more than ever, people around the world use the Internet to support their personal and business tasks on a daily basis. The Internet is a portal into vast amounts of information concerning almost every aspect of life including education, business, politics, entertainment, social networking, and world security. (idebate.com) Although the Internet has become a key resource in developing the world, the mass use of Internet has highlighted a major problem, privacy and the protection of individual, corporate, and even government

When the book 1984, by George Orwell, was first published, people thought very little of the world that had been created within the book. In this world, society was run by the Inner Party, whose "leader" is Big Brother. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party; he is the one who controls everything. He controls food ration, living arrangements, work positions, privacy, and even a person's mind. Privacy did not exist. In modern times, many aspects of the anti-utopian novel are beginning to appear in society. One of the major factors that are becoming more and more like Big Brother is the Internet. More specifically, Google, a very popular search engine, has been ridiculed and attacked for certain policies it has and does not have that resemble Big Brother's antics. Google is under suspicion as being the next Big Brother by many parties, including an organization under Privacy International called Google Watch, because of their disregard of privacy, specifically, accessing its users' hard disk information off their computer (Brandt).

"The US government along with federal, state, and local have authority over many different aspects of our everyday life. It is important to have structure and security in the society we live in. I believe we all have the right to our privacy to an extent. Government control over Internet content is a topic that is constantly being argued about daily. Monitoring the content of our internet does violate our privacy but, there is understandable reasons on why it should be monitored. The need for privacy, the reasons to what content is being monitored, and how often it is monitored are the focus to the extent of government involvement in internet monitoring.

The excessive use of the internet and its tools, is only feeding the government’s way of collecting data. There is no privacy, and rights are being violated. Everything and everyone is being tracked and monitored. No one is conscious of what it means to have technology take control over every aspect of life. Dave Eggers serves as a voice of warning, and should be heard so “men [do not] begin to think like computers”

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

“Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty” is an essay written by Nicholas Carr in 2010 in the Wall Street Journal. He said that there are chances that, “our personal data will fall into the wrong hands” (Carr 438). It means that people’s personal information might drop under the hands of hackers, data aggressors, and stalkers. In addition, Carr believes that “personal information may be used to influence our behavior and even our thoughts in ways that are invisible to us” (Carr 439). It means that the data aggressors misuse people’s information in opposite way or in a wrong way. For example, data aggressors steal the people’s personal information and use that information for their own benefits. Therefore, Carr believes that government should regulate the internet. Unlike Carr, Harper believes that people are responsible for their own information. They should be aware and concerned about potential dangers of posting their personal information on the internet. However, it’s people duty to be aware of its consequences before posting any of their personal