Shah 2 Similar to the debates around the Patriot Act, revelations about government data collection have sparked concern over potential violations of individual rights. Byron Tau reveals a network of government contractors procuring vast amounts of consumer data, obtained from sources like social media and smartphones, for undisclosed purposes. These surveillance practices raise questions about accountability and the limits of government intrusion into our private lives. As people grapple with the implications of data collection, there are demands for transparency and oversight, underscoring the imperative to balance security with respect for civil liberties. As Tau warns, “Any nightmare use of data you can think of will probably eventually happen,” heightening the urgency of addressing these concerns and safeguarding individual privacy rights.
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
In other words, they are collecting a lot of data from our phone conversations, emails, and social networking communications every single day. As the article states, it says that when Congress passed the Patriot Act, it expanded federal officials’ powers to keep tabs on most of our personal information. Not only are they intercepting emails, but they are also tracking credit card use, cell phone call, and car travel. This may seem a bit invasive, but a survey shows that about ⅔ of Americans are willing to put up with the personal impositions in order to prevent
This a negative impact on people and people need to start worrying about saving their job. Schneier use pathos, this is scary to think that we’re under surveillance 24/7, no matter where you are. People need to be aware that the companies are invading their privacy, “which means they keep you under surveillance” (Schneier 4). They offer you many free services and apps. This is their way to collect your data.
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).
Many Americans are worried about how much of their personal information is being watched and tracked. According to a report, 64% are concerned about government surveillance and 79% about how companies collect data (Auxier, 2019). Most people also feel less secure about their personal information than they did five years ago. Despite these concerns, about half of the Americans see government data tracking as necessary for things like preventing terrorism. However, there is a strong call for better regulation, with 75% of people wanting more government control over what companies can do with their data (Auxier, 2019).
According to ACLU, “Recent disclosures also show that an unknown number of purely domestic communications are monitored, that the rules that supposedly protect Americans' privacy are weak and riddled with exceptions, and that virtually every email that goes into or out of the United States is scanned for suspicious keywords.” Through this action, citizens are being more prepared to insure that similar acts that occurred on 9/11 never have to happen again. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) gave NSA almost unchecked power to monitor americans. U.S citizens need to be educated on what is going on when they are using their phones but they also need to learn about why it needs to be done. According to HR14, once Thinthread, which is a technology that protected civil liberties in alignment with the Constitution, and was relatively inexpensive to implement had gained permission to such the NSA database they found critical information that gave evidence of the hijackers actions before 9/11.
As cell phones become such a necessity in life, many Americans have become so afraid of using them due to the idea that their phones are constantly being monitored. People have developed such a strong belief that the Patriot Act is unconstitutional and illegal, only creating fear for so many Americans. An article provided states, “For years, the United States government has been collecting every record of every phone call you make — when you call, whom you call, how long the call lasted, and how often you make those calls.” When it comes to the Patriot Act, people are only focusing on the idea that they are being watched, and of course that only develops a deep fear of the government and overall protection. The government may be watching us, but they have created the idea that they are only monitoring us for our own
There are many constitutional implications of government spying programs, one of those being a complete violation of privacy here in the United States. Snowden himself exposed the NSA, as he noted that calls were recorded and various other electronic data were collected on many individuals and kept for future use. There is no denying that the use of spying programs violates an American’s 4th amendment and it often leads to people refraining from posting something controversial due to the fear of being watched. Ever since the WikiLeaks documents were publicized, many people feel paranoid, and rightly so. People used to be able to talk, post and do anything they wanted to with complete freedom.
During his book “The Future of Life” John Wilson conveys the simplistically similar thought process of environmentalists and conservatives by incorporating speculative language and subjectively vague word choice. In the people- first critic, Wilson implies the “broad and mostly hidden” political agenda of the environmentalists. Yet this supposed looming ulterior motive is not factually based nor justified. It is simply just a spread of slander. Similarly, Wilson enforces through the environmentalist perspective how conservatives harbor a “right wing political agenda” that they keep “mostly hidden.”
Attention all citizens! The government is watching your every single move. They know all your passwords, emails, and phone numbers. Your privacy is being invaded! Destroy every piece of technology you own and stand up against those attempting to dictate our lives!
The government is unlawfully invading the privacy of the American people. Bills and surveillance programs have been set in place to spy on the American people which is an invasion of privacy. Shortly after 9/11 the government passed a bill that was to help protect Americans from any further terrorists attacks. That bill was the Patriot Act short for “Providing Appropriate Tools Required to intercept and obstruct Terrorism Act”, this was the first of many bills passed which gave the U.S government freedom to use tools of surveillance to spy on Americans. The government then had the authority to monitor the actions of any Americans such as their phone and email communications, bank and credit records, and internet activity.
That's my tracker,” by Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan they talk about how every personal information that a citizen has safe on their phone is not safe and that their phones are in danger. In the article, they mention how “1.3 million of call data was collected”. Millions of cell phone users have been swept up in government surveillance of their calls. That proves that cell phone companies have definitely been watching our every move and how our phones have obviously become like our personal trackers. In the article, they also mention how “Cellular systems constantly check and record the location of all phones on their networks – and this data is particularly treasured by police departments and online advertisers” this obviously shows that the government is able to obtain private information from citizens.
America has slowly and continues to develop new technology, carnivore wiretap software, that is used to keep track of citizens as well as gather personal information on individual citizens regardless of them obtaining a criminal background or not. The government argues these are the new technologies being used to keep us safe from things such as terrorism. These technologies are an invasion of privacy. Individuals may argue they are keeping us safe, but is it worth losing your natural rights and privacy? Today's technologies are in our present day society are reflecting those used in Orwell's vision in 1984.
but I believe the NSA has been taking things much too far. The NSA has been purposely intruding SMS, texts, calls, and almost anything that is considered over the web interaction. Not only is this causing problems for people right here at home but is also making enemies overseas. A great example of this is the NSA spying scandal in Germany. On July 10th 2014 as told by several news site including my citing of NBC news [1] that Germany demanded that the top U.S. intelligence official leave immediately over spying allegations.
