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Right To Privacy

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Recommended: Essays on government surveillance

With so much terror being spread in the world today governments are beginning to closely monitor the internet usage of their citizens. The major question is: are governments overstepping and breaching the privacy of their citizens? Obviously, the laws in each country are different but the definition to one’s base privacy, as described by Donald M. Gillmor, who alone has written many different law textbooks used in many different universities, and other very respected professors came together to write the Mass Communication Law: Cases and Comments defined privacy as "individuals are entitled to protect personal, intimate aspects of their lives from use or interference by others." To give a valid argument it also needs to be stated how the government …show more content…

As of now governments all around the world like the United States, England, and China, look at personal information and make sure no data has been breached that could harm them or their identity. Without this, the internet wouldn’t be a safe place; but with some government interventions major terrorist plots could have been stopped leading to a safer world. Ever since the 1990s and leading into September 11 terrorist attacks were becoming more and more frequent and the government and FBI had to figure out a way to prevent terrorist attacks. So, how do governments best protect its citizens while also protecting their right to privacy? Governments like the USA, China, and England should be able to have access to personal data that is only relevant to potential terrorist activities that are decided on by government officials, like mass shootings and public bombings, that might occur in the …show more content…

The US’s governments goal is to protect all their citizens at all costs, because of this, data can be breached and used to make sure the user is safe. According to the 2010 National Security Strategy “cybersecurity threats represent one of the most serious national security, public safety, and economic challenges we face as a nation.” This is used to give the United States government the ability to not only look into potential terrorist plots but to also stop them before they ever happen. “The threats encompassed by our cybersecurity are created by three elements: (1) knowledge of a vulnerability, (2) access to it, and (3) a payload. (38) All cyber insecurities require some vulnerability--that is, a flaw or weakness”. (Finnmore and Duncan) The US has tried to limit these flaws or weaknesses online but has not been able to completely get rid of them because they allow their citizens to have more privacy and the problem won’t be stopped until they can access and assess all data from their citizens. If citizens had complete privacy the US government wouldn’t be able to stop anything before it happened, possibly making situations worse as leaders wouldn’t have any idea what was going to happen or when it would happen.

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427 Words | 2 Pages

Recently the right to privacy has been severely threatened by the Patriot Act. The USA PATRIOT ACT, which was made a law on October 26, 2001 by president George W. Bush, let criminal investigators use whatever tools necessary to find terrorist attacks before they happened; USA PATRIOT ACT is short for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001". This was made a law in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center in NYC on September 11, 2001. Law enforcement officials were given better resources to fight financial counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering schemes that funded terrorists. The Patriot Act’s definition of terrorism also gave

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1180 Words | 5 Pages

American’s rights over government protection Are Americans being blindingly controlled by our own government? Today, there is a controversy to whether or not government should be allowed to monitor phone calls, emails, and internet searches for the purpose of investigating terrorist organizations and plans. Although it’s important to remain protected, giving up our rights to our government isn’t an acceptable proposition. Due to our government’s suppressing amount of power and secrecy, it is eccentric for us citizens to allow the government to violate our fourth amendment by breaching our privacy. We have one right that protects us Americans from unreasonable searches and that is the fourth amendment of the United States.

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984 Words | 4 Pages

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).

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Today, terrorism has become the most newsworthy headline. Terrorism has been happening all over the world and people are not sure how to stop it. People want terrorism to stop however, they do not want their rights violated. Through social media, many have mentioned that “the government is always watching us.” The USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) signed in 2001, allows the government to have access to anything, anytime, anywhere.

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674 Words | 3 Pages

Since September 11th, fear connected with national security threats has shifted to fear of the federal government. The U.S.A. Patriot Act certainly caused much anxiety amongst society. Signed by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, this act increased law enforcement’s surveillance and investigative powers, “The purpose of the USA PATRIOT Act is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and other purposes.” Clearly, federal agents have abused their power, as personal information, telephone calls, and Internet searches were and are being recorded and saved. A recent news article, posted in The Guardian, fully elucidates the intrusive government spying of American citizens, “the watchlist tracks ‘known’ and ‘suspected’ terrorists and includes both foreigners and Americans.

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643 Words | 3 Pages

The internet, government, and corporations are all out to get you, or at least that is what Bruce Schneier would like convince you of in his work titled “The Internet Is a Surveillance State”. Schneier identifies many reasons as to why a surveillance state is a negative, such as constant tracking, habit profiling, and lack of privacy both in public and in the comfort of your own home. What Schneier fails to address, however, is that a surveillance state isn’t always a negative, and quite possibly it is a necessary evil to prevent bad things from happening around the globe. As Whitney Cramer states in her essay titled “Giving up Our Privacy: Is it Worth It?” , Schneier “fails to acknowledge” that the “loss of privacy to protect the innocent

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794 Words | 4 Pages

"Internet privacy has recently been a hotly debated issue. If the government does not have probable cause or a warrant to monitor internet activity, then they are not permitted to do so. I base this off of the Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ” Making this claim, I believe that the Patriot Act, the National Security Agency’s surveillance, and practices like these are illegal.

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857 Words | 4 Pages

As noted in the TED Talk "A Future Without Secrets," the digital landscape has revolutionized how we communicate, work, and engage with our surroundings. However, this interconnection has led to widespread monitoring and data collection by governments, businesses, and other groups. According to the disclosures in "How the NSA Betrayed the World's Trust," government monitoring operations like the NSA's have damaged worldwide faith in digital communications and technology corporations. Furthermore, the incorporation of technology into all parts of our lives, from smartphones and social media platforms, has created countless points of vulnerability for privacy violations. Data breaches, hacks, and the use of personal information for targeted advertising are just a few instances of how our privacy is being jeopardized in the digital age.

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

They know the whereabouts of innocent people. Does this not create an unsettling discomfort? Frighteningly, there are no limits on what the government can see, there are no limits on how far they can go to invade privacy, and there are no limits on what they can do with their citizens’

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1652 Words | 7 Pages

The government has many tools in looking into people's information but the government doesn't realize that it is violating the 4th amendment by using the resources they have in looking into suspected people and that's the reason why we cannot trust our information to be safe with the government either way. David Cole, a lawyer who teaches constitutional law and national security at Georgetown University, and other legal analysts says that, “The world of computers has weakened the Fourth Amendment. " In the modern digital age, it means very, very little. "(citation). The reason why he says this is because, before we had computers, no one knew who we were seeing or where we were going throughout the day, but if someone were to know they would have to wiretap our things to know.

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591 Words | 3 Pages

How would you feel if someone you’re not familiar with tells you that he/she knows what you have been doing for the last 3 days?. NSA (National Security Agency) has been accused of spying the American citizens using the internet. When it comes to the topic of how the government should give all of us a little privacy on our own, we readily agree that there are many advantages and disadvantages about this controversial topic. Where this argument usually end, however, is on the question of “How has our government compromised on your rights in the name of security?”. Whereas convinced that we, people, feel uncomfortable being spied on, secretly.

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515 Words | 3 Pages

I believe that they are violating our freedom act and our individual privacy. If we have a computer that collects all information about us, how can we be sure that other terrorists will not be able to get a hold of our private information? Personally, it makes me feel less safe that everything I do digitally is stored somewhere. There are people

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792 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1401 Words | 6 Pages

According to Kathleen Touchstone (2010) “The rights of the individual must be protected and not infringed by the government” (p.18) As the United States has expanded to a bigger governmental power, the issue of “terrorism” grows each and every day. The reason on why terrorism exists and continues to grow and take place is another issue I won’t even address because I could talk about it all day. But, the United States government uses federal organizations such as the NSA, which violates our constitution, rights, and privacy. They have the ability to tap into any technological device, and they do so to in the name of “counter terrorism” to “protect

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1295 Words | 6 Pages

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?

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