Surveillance by our government, employers, and even terrorists is not a new subject. This has been going on for many years but when our country is in a time of defense surveillance and security is increased. Surveillance in our country since the events of September 11, 2001 has increased tremendously (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/30634.php). Our country is in a time of war and protection against terrorism is our number one goal. To achieve this goal surveillance of all things that can be a potential threat is necessary. The government has monitored many different things such as telephone conversations, credit card transactions, travel records, and interactions on the internet (http://www.cnss.org/tia.htm). Some people do not like the idea and others believe in all of its efforts.
Surveillance can be viewed in a variety of ways. When talking about surveillance related to security and warfare, you would think there would a fine line about what is considered invasion of privacy and what is protection but there is not. According to Shields (2005), people feel that an increase in surveillance erodes citizens’ privacy. When we are in a state of peace there are no reasons to be constantly monitoring, but in the situation that our country is in now since 911, I think it is necessary to be always searching for threats. The only reason the government uses surveillance to this extreme is to protect our country. If they did not do the necessary monitoring and something happened, people would be asking why the government was not looking out and protecting us more. The best way to summarize this would to say it is a “necessary evil.” Not everyone is going to agree with this surveillance and most will go against the government but when the country is in need of security and protection it is the right thing to do.
There are many ways to go about using surveillance on the internet. The government uses certain tracking software to monitor citizens and look for potential terrorist. These types of software programs or bugs can allow the government to get information about people that are using the internet. In addition, look for certain details in conversations or interactions that might be a threat to our country. The FBI recently has started using an internet surveillance technique that collects more data on citizen than ever before. According to McCullagh (2007), “This kind of full-pipe surveillance can record all Internet traffic, including Web browsing--or, optionally, only certain subsets such as all e-mail messages flowing through the network” (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-151059.html). This can help us find any thing out on the internet that might be harmful to us. There are other forms of surveillance that the government uses to monitor phone conversations which are called wiretaps. President Bush in July, 2008 signed an expansion on wiretap laws which broadens the governments surveillance power. This is allowing phone company’s to bug their customers phone conversations without a court approval if asked by the NSA. The goal of this is to wiretap potential terrorist or foreign intelligence agencies (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=expanded-wiretap-law).
All of these different types of surveillance are getting citizens more concerned about there privacy than ever before that is affecting our society. According to Thurlow, Lengel, and Tomic (), “State censorship of the internet and online surveillance continues to threaten free speech and public interaction online, whether is be in the form of official blocks to access or hidden monitoring of messages”(p.91). In the sense of protection against terrorism, surveillance is a great tool but the governments monitoring has to have its limits as well. Freedom is what this country stands for and people should never feel like that is being taken away from them. However, when using the internet nothing is private. Like Conlin (2006) said, “People need to realize that this is like putting stuff up on the 6 o’clock news” (p.118). That is all under that users control so if you do not want something private about yourself being known do not use the internet to say it. If you do this surveillance should nott be a problem or affect you. People are also concerned with the fact that we are providing a system for our enemies to hack into.
References:
(2005). Prof probes impact of post 9/11 surveillance. Medical News Today. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/30634.php
Corman, S. (2008). How Enemies Could Use Our Wiretaps. COMOPS Journal. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://comops.org/journal/2008/02/09/how-enemies-could-use-our-wiretaps/
McCullagh, D., (2007). FBI turns to broad new wiretap method. ZDNet. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-151059.html
Shields, P. (2005). When the ‘information revolution’ and the
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L., Tomic, A. (2004). Computer Mediated Communication: Social Interaction and The Internet. Sage Publications Inc. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://books.google.com/books?id=kzeS1LHFzBAC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=Surveillance+Computer+mediated+communication&source=web&ots=gUEXl6nHFm&sig=4g-yprP0E6r5S9XjsDqYXtWVcaI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA91,M1
Total information awareness. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://www.cnss.org/tia.htm
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