The Controversy Around Government Surveillance: Liberty Versus Safety

Imagine one person sitting in front of a monitor, who can track, with precision, an unimaginably large number of people. Sadly, our society does not have to imagine such a thing because that is currently our reality. Government surveillance has reached to a point where people are pointing out flaws in the system. One person has already come forward, Edward Snowden, in his book Permanent Record, which reveals the true story behind the increase in surveillance. This misuse of technology, and the corresponding invasion of privacy, is causing more harm than good; moreover, the government’s intentions are to protect Americans from domestic threats, therefore, intrusions such as stealing information and searching through conversations are violating and deceitful.

The United States government crossed the line when protecting the people through surveillance as well as passing bills that support gathering information on ordinary Americans. After the September 11 attacks, congress passed the Patriot Act, “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” The bill expanded the powers of the FISC as well as gave more leverage on espionage to Intelligence agencies such as the NSA and the FBI. Edward Snowden once stated, “Surveillance technologies has outpaced democratic controls.” The Patriot Act gave more permissions to the US government to intrude into the lives of Americans without consequence. For example, the US government can track your conversations, emails, phone calls, anything accessible through the internet is at risk of being tracked and recorded. One way the US government utilizes surveillance is through computer matching. Computer matching is when an intelligence agency cross matches an email user and property against watch lists or with people entering and leaving the country. Alongside that idea, corporate data aggregators will “gather personal data from hundreds of sources”, eventually to be filed into reports and sold to businesses and or government agencies. There is no justification for an intelligence agency to purchase information on tons of internet users from corporations. The most feasible choice viewed here is that the US government is storing public data to either be used in a case or for no apparent reason. This action truly makes no sense, an intelligence agency is supposed to track domestic terrorists, not gather data on innocent people.

Today, many people do not realize that the constant monitoring and privacy invasions is a violation of a constitutional right, specifically the fourth amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued against section 215 of the Patriot act because these searches violate the Fourth Amendment, specifically with unreasonable searches and seizures as well as the first amendment. Forbye, The NSA utilizes many advanced programs to spy on the American people. Identically, third party companies share sensitive information on citizens who have not committed any crimes. According to released documents, ICE plans to spend a hundred million dollars on a contract to monitor the social media activity of visitors to the US. Edward Snowden has stated that the NSA has one of the greatest surveillance programs in the world, yet at the same time, they are using that program on Americans. The Department of Homeland of Security uses a “Shared Social Media Screening Service,” which gathers and analyzes social media content. To elaborate, there are some surveillance programs the NSA and the CIA utilized in espionage. First, 702 Surveillance: This program allows bulk collection of user data, if the information is sent within the US (Sec. 139, endorses nearly all warrantless searches of databases containing Americans’ communications collected under Section 702). Secondly, executive order 12333: When other authorities are not aggressive enough, the NSA uses this program. This program is stationed in media centers such as google, yahoo and AOL, sites for emails. Three more programs that intelligence agencies use are PRISM, mystic and 215 metadata, which all collect information such as phone and sms conservations and compartmentalizes the info for future use. Every program listed here portrays the ability to obtain information from anyone without consent from that person as well as the ability to use that information discreetly. Edward Snowden in an interview once said, “The NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in its system, and it filters them and it analyses them and it measures them and it stores them.” Regardless of a person’s identity or their actions and habits, everything is recorded. The NSA states surveillance will protect the people and get rid of terrorism, yet their definition of protection is recording every movement, every conservation, putting everyone in a state of fear rather than reassurance. At the end of the day, surveillance of the American people is unlawful and these programs should be used for foreign intelligence, not espionage on home soil.

One could easily believe that government surveillance is beneficial in society, especially in the United States. Well, that one person is correct, government surveillance does help their citizens security, moreover, a large percentage agreed with the Patriot Act. For example, after the Patriot Act was passed almost a year after the 9/11 attacks, sixty percent of people agreed that the Bush Administration is about right with restricting civil liberties and later when the poll was taken again in three years, the same question, the poll read fifty-five percent. Furthermore, a study done by the University of Tennessee has shown that CCTV surveillance cameras have been proven to deter crime when combined with other methods of crime deterrence.

This view, without a doubt appears persuasive at first, however government surveillance programs are prone to gather more than necessary information on their own citizens. For example, China has one of the world’s most advanced CCTV systems in the world, correspondingly, they survey every single phone that is being used within the country. As a matter of fact, the Chinese government cracks down on opposition and swiftly puts an end to any resistance. In the light of domestic espionage, the United States has been known to gather information on their own citizens. “A government agency is spying on us. The loss in privacy for Americans is a huge cost,” this quote shows that the fourth amendment is being challenged secretly without the people having any knowledge. The United States was built on freedom and liberty from the government. If the United States continues to watch over every action such as email or phone conservations, the US will be no better than the already police state, China.

As a solution to the mass surveillance in the United States, the Patriot Act must be repealed and replaced because the act gives intelligence agencies way too much leverage. Another addition to the solution is the Freedom Act, a bill that was meant to reform the Patriot Act to prevent the mass collection of data of users within the United States.

Governments intruding in the lives of their citizens and collecting information such as conversations and emails are misleading and are irresponsible in the name of security; Furthermore, the invasion of privacy has resulted in more damage than benefits. Looking at only the United States, the government has lied to the American people when the news was released about surveillance of almost every citizen. Yes, surveillance is beneficial to society when deterring crime; In addition, there will always be surveillance in public areas. However, when intelligence agencies such as the NSA or CIA are committing espionage on their own citizens, that clear ethical line on security, through surveillance, has been violated.