I do not believe that the U.S.F.G should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance, due to the fact that by dramatically decreasing monitoring of domestic affairs, the U.S. not only makes itself more vulnerable to social, economic, political, and other domestic issues, but it also makes Homeland Security more vulnerable and significantly weaker in their quest to stop terrorism in the United States and guard our borders. Google's dictionary defines the word, "surveillance" as, "close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal". By restricting the government's access to monitor and potentially stop espionage or other criminal activity such as terrorism, corruption, cyber attacks/hacking or even fraud, I believe that …show more content…
By catching a criminal online, the USFG can stop the person from committing an act that would hurt others. By monitoring phone logs, cookies, and other metadata, the police/state can acquire more evidence needed to solve a case or even find a missing person. By monitoring others and taking action when necessary, the US government can help keep people safe, which would entice other countries to follow suit, and probably feel more comfortable when partnering with the U.S. Similar to child care, would you feel secure leaving your child without supervision in a public place? This is what the USFG prevents from happening and is another reason as to why I do not believe that the USFG should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance! Also, why should we be so concerned about privacy if we have nothing to hide? Would you feel uncomfortable knowing your parents are watching you do the right thing and following directions? On the other side, I am sure you wouldn't want to be monitored if you were doing something questionable, so really, why worry about surveillance? In times like these, it seems as though surveillance should be enforced and enhanced, not "substantially curtailed", and that is why I think you shouldn't agree with the affirmative side of this
It gives us a broad view of how devious our government can be towards their private situations. One of the main consequences that government faces as a result of their secrets is the distrust they receive from America today. Our government can asks us to participate in their desire to know more of us but refuses to inform us with the truth. Instead of giving up our rights to our government we should be protecting them. Therefore, it is absurd that there is even a debate on whether or not we should allow our government to monitor our personal
Edward Snowden sparked huge sensational news stories and debates over the groundbreaking revelation of the massive surveillance program that was authorized by Congress and the president of the United States of America. It was formally presented as the USA PATRIOT Act by Congress and signed into law by George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The PATRIOT Act was approved by a large bipartisan majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The PATRIOT Act soon went under the radar as the US went into war in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, Edward Snowden forced up the issue of civil liberties and national security once again when he released documents specifically pertaining to the National Security Agency out to The Guardian.
Imagine for a second that every phone call you make, every text message you send, and every place you go is being constantly monitored by multiple governments. Well this is basically what the United State and United Kingdom's government is doing on a daily basis. The United States National Security Agency has been implementing projects in secret to monitoring people since 2001 but it would still be kept as a secret if Edward Snowden did not reveal this massive secret that was intruding the public’s privacy for years. The U.S. surveillance program started because of the September 9th, 2001 terrorist attack that hijacked airplanes and slammed them into the World Trade Center towers.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows U.S. intelligence agencies to acquire foreign intelligence information by monitoring foreign persons in the USA and abroad. This act ensures that intelligence agencies can respond in time to terminate a security threat. The most important part of this act, the Section 702 forbids deliberate monitoring of US citizens and their communication. Technically NSA has been violating this act ever since it has been enacted in 2008 because, as we know, they have been monitoring all US citizenry.
The whole point of the Fourth Amendment is not to completely stop the police, because the amendment can be waived if an officer has a warrant, or a person’s consent. The Fourth Amendment states that generally a search or seizure is illegal unless there is a warrant, or special circumstances. Technically stating that a citizen is protected by the Fourth Amendment, until a government employee gets a warrant, and then they can invade a citizen’s privacy. Also people state that the FISA Court’s warrants are constitutional, but the NSA’s surveillance is unconstitutional. Even though people do not like the NSA’s surveillance, the NSA is legal because the FISA Court that the people did not mind makes it legal.
According to the text “Our value is founded on a unique and deep understanding of risks, vulnerabilities, mitigations, and threats. Domestic Surveillance plays a vital role in our national security by using advanced data mining systems to "connect the dots" to identify suspicious patterns” (NSA). One of the slogans of the NSA is, “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. However, if you have nothing to hide there is no argumentation as to why the NSA taps into any form of communication or access to the internet. Therefore, this withdraws the power of the people and puts it directly back into the government and, simultaneously belittles citizen’s
The Patriot Act allows for government investigators to share information on suspected terrorists with other branches of the government much easier than before 9/11 so that tragedy’s like this can be avoided in the future. While intense backlash has been received regarding the Patriot Act’s effects on immigration, and unlawful surveillance, the small negatives that have yet to been proven true much outweigh the good this law can do in protecting the lives of innocent Americans. With the Patriot Act countless lives have been saved without the masses without even realizing they have been saved. According to a speech given by President Bush three years after he signed the law into place, with the Patriot Act a one man terrorist plan turned into
Yet, is this the right question? If we are to argue that the surveillance is inappropriate, we need to understand the change in context. If we look at the world 10 years ago, when attitudes to surveillance changed, the attack of 11 September 2011 is seen as a catalyst. However, it is not the source of the surveillance.
The other side of this argument is that mass surveillance is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. This is what Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy had to say on the matter. “’Americans deserve to understand more about the NSA's collection and use of their phone records, and in particular about the types of systemic problems revealed in these documents,’”(Risen 4). In a similar way according to Risen “the American public remains wary of the threat of terrorism but is also critical of government surveillance programs put in place”, and that “majority of Americans ‘oppose mass surveillance of people's Internet and phone usage for use in future investigations. ’“(Risen 6).
Just 45 days after 9/11 the Patriot Act was hastily passed. The act is in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unlawful search and seizure; it allows our government to spy on American citizen’s technology use without a warrant. The act was intended to protect against terrorism, but between 2003 and 2005 there were 143,074 National Security Letters that allowed the FBI to search through personal information without a warrant resulting in 53 criminal referrals, of which zero were terrorist threats (ACLU). I do believe in monitoring for terrorist threats , but we can’t let fear control our decisions. Our right to privacy is fundamental, and without reasonable cause no one should be monitored by the
Stop and Frisk Stop and Frisk, the tactic that has been going on for only for short time, yet there seems to be racial tension already. But is this new information actually true or is it just good policing? According to Heather Mac Donald from the Manhattan Institute, says “what looks like racial profiling might just be good policing”. However according to Ranjana Natarajan from the Washington post “it’s clear that two issues need to be addressed: racial profiling and police use of excessive force.” Unfortunately we cannot have both ways.
You shouldn’t have to be watched if you aren’t deemed a threat to yourself or society. In my opinion humans are naturally more private creatures that don’t like sharing everything about themselves. The individual right of privacy allows humans to hide somethings about themselves, if it doesn’t seem harmful. However, surveillance is used in public order to observe those that could be plotting against the government, or an attack in the United States. Surveillance has been used to catch and stop many dangerous people who show a threat to the safety of the United States.
Government Surveillance vs Privacy Spying is nothing new to the world. History books tell us that ancient civilizations like the Roman Empire, Egypt, China, India, and so on used it. On top of that, 1900s regimes like the Former Soviet Union and Nazi’s Germany used spying tactics around the world wars. The main use of spying at that time mostly was for political and military advantage. These countries were successful on spying.
Big brother implies the authority that regulates and monitors information and citizens. Currently, technology developments such as closed-circuit television, black box, cell phone, and a bunch of search engines, allow to record every moves that people make and to give rise to surveillance society. Surveillance society has two sides of the coin. In this essay, I will deliver pros and cons about surveillance society and possible solutions to deal with the issue.
With the advancement of surveillance technology, many citizens feel that their privacy rights have been violated due to homeland security and the threat of terrorism. Throughout history our government has implemented domestic and international surveillance as a way to safeguard our society from other countries. Now the question that seems to arise within our society is if the government is infringing on our civil liberties? Or is this indeed protecting our nation from imminent danger?