Why Government Surveillance Is Unnecessary Whether people know it or not, the NSA has been conducting mass surveillance on American citizens since the early twenty-first century. Many people argue whether it is good or bad for the people of America, but studies prove that it has a more negative than positive effect. The NSA stands for National Security Agency in which they are an intelligence organization meant for global monitoring of American citizens (www.nsa.gov).They have been known for processing data from Americans and foreign country leaders to find information they are looking for.
In this paper, I argue against Government Surveillance. Although a society full of cameras could help solve some crimes, it is also true that the Constitution, through the fourth amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Despite the fact that this is not a guarantee against all searches and seizures, only those that are deemed unreasonable under the law should be monitored. In addition, increasing political surveillance with the excuse of protection against war or enemies only fuels the fact that innocent people’s lives are being monitored. Finally, the information collected by the mass internet surveillance programs could be used for other harmful purposes since hackers could gain access to the databases and sell the information to other companies or terrorist groups.
The NSA or the National Security Agency carries out most of the domestic surveillance in the United States. Before the 9/11 attacks the NSA needed approval from a court, but after the attacks, they were given free reign to copy any data that possibly linked to terrorist activities. This led to many arguments over whether this collection of data was unconstitutional or not. The extent of this surveillance shocked many people; many civil rights advocates thought that this surveillance breached United States citizens’ rights. Because of the threat of domestic surveillance in the United States it should be decreased drastically but not entirely stopped.
The world of Big Brother depends upon total control and surveillance on its citizens. For example, Orwell gives detail of devices the Party, which is Oceania’s government, uses in order to maintain structure. He writes, “...an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall... The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.” (Orwell 2).
In the book 1984, by George Orwell, the Big Brother, aka the government, is oppresses the citizens of Oceania through spying on them, monitoring every second of their lives, and controlling them through threats and by using this surveillance. The illiberal government in this novel imposes what would be harsh violations of several of the rights Americans have such as their privacy, independence, and freedom. The citizens in the novel are strippe of their all individualism because of Big Brother’s negative influence in their lives. Big Brother justifies that spying on its citizens helps everyone as a group and is necessary for everyone. Today the NSA (National Security Agency) has a striking resemblance to Big Brother as both justify spying with “security” and the “benefit” of the people.
Therefore, I want to prove that the citizens are better off with Big Brother as their leader. It is better to have a form of leadership, than no leadership at all. I have chosen this topic because it is new and insightful. It will be challenging to support this belief since people do not typically think about Big Brother in a positive way. What I am going to prove is a unique perspective on a traditionally negative aspect of 1984.
Big Brother is “getting the language into its final shape- the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else” (50). Draining everyone’s train of thought is one goal of Big Brother. Without a way of thinking and no way of expressing oneself, one will no longer be able to commit thoughtcrime and will be under full control of the government, already disciplined and obedient. The government got a hold of the past, in this case, the past times language, and is able to control the present and
There’s a question Americans constantly ask themselves, is the government trustable? Many citizens would answer no because they believe that the government is constantly watching them. The privacy of American citizens is being violated by the GPS trackers in our phones that the government can see and monitor, how the government listens to our calls and how they store all our information. In the novel, 1984 by George Orwell, Winston explains how Big Brother is constantly watching them.
NSA Surveillance "I can 't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building" (Edward Snowden). The NSA began monitoring and collecting sensitive and personal information from Americans such as their emails, phone calls, photos and other private material. Massive surveillance began in 2001 after the terrorist attack in New York and since then there has been a big peak in government watching. It 's unnecessary for the NSA to monitor American’s private conversations as well as other sensitive data because people should be able to have a sense of privacy in personal communication with others. Government watching is something that the government shouldn’t do because although there are bad people in this world it is irrelevant for them to watch everyone because not everyone is bad and many people disfavors this decision.
The U.S. government is invading the privacy of its’ citizens through the use of mobile devices such as phones and laptops. This use of privacy invasion is similar to the technology used in George Orwell’s novel 1984. What makes today relate to 1984 is how the government tracks us through location, voice, and messaging. George Orwell’s 1984 has a totalitarian government that can track its’ citizens through location with the use of telescreens. In the novel, telescreens can track your location in a room through a telescreen, which is demonstrated by Winston´s thought ¨so long as you remained within the field of vision … you could be seen¨ (Orwell, page 3).
The recent revelations about the NSA surveillance programme have cause concern and outrage by citizens and politicians across the world. What has been missing, though, is any extended discussion of why the government wants the surveillance and on what basis is it authorised. For many commentators surveillance is wrong and it cannot be justified. Some commentators have argued that surveillance is intrinsic to the nature of government and its ability to deliver the public good.[1] Few, though have looked at the surveillance within a wider context to understand how it developed. A notable exception is the work by Steven Aftergood.
The conception of the surveillance program was an attempt to protect the american citizens from terrorist activity as well as act as a form of counterterrorism abroad in many other countries. These positive aspects of the massive surveillance system show that there is a benevolent practice of surveillance that should be
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.
George Orwell’s 1984 is a precautionary tale of what happens when the government has too much control in our lives. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is at odds in a world in which he is not allowed to counter the government’s surveillance and control. Perhaps more striking is the noticeable relationship between the novel and modern society. In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the book predicts the surveillance of Big Brother in modern day societies.
The age of intelligence has grown at an extremely accelerated rate over the past few years in the United States. After the events of September 11, 2001, when the terrorist group Al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Centers in New York, the surge of surveillance of the American public increased drastically. Measures to ensure our national security were put in place directly after the attacks such as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the passing of the Patriot Act, and the rise of the National Security Agency, or NSA. The purpose of these decisions were to guarantee the safety of the American citizens from any act of terrorism. The products of this idea are something far from what the American citizens expected in terms of safety