Warrantless Mass Surveillance in the U.S.

  Warrantless Mass Surveillance in the U.S.

Defining Civic Engagement:

1. Individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation. It can include efforts to directly address an issue, work with others in a community to solve a problem or interact with the institutions of representative democracy.

http://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/civic-engagement.aspx

2. Civic engagement involves “working to make a difference in the civic life of one's community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.”

https://youth.gov/youth-topics/civic-engagement-and-volunteering

Topic Overview: 

     Mass Warrantless Surveillance in the U.S. has become a fact of life for those living in the country. The 9/11 terrorist attacks spurred an urgent call for government agencies to immediately expand their surveillance powers to monitor citizens and safeguard against any future attacks. With the passage of the USA Patriot Act and the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 federal intelligence agencies now effectively had free reign to monitor and store vast amounts of data pertaining to Americans electronic communications, online activity, gps location, etc. Since then similar legislation has passed or renewed such measures such as the USA Freedom Act of 2015 and the 2018 renewal of section 702 of the FISA act. At any point, calls, texts, e-mails, and the internet browsing history of mass segments of the population are closely observed and recorded by the federal government. Furthermore, should information from any of these sources raise suspicion, individuals’ cell phone cameras, microphones, and/or webcams could all be accessed and remotely activated to essentially spy on innocent targets. These practices have serious implications for the state of our democracy, as well as the values, principles, and freedoms this great nation was founded upon.

The following are statements found directly on the NSA Domestic Surveillance Directorate website:

“Every day, people leave a digital trail of electronic breadcrumbs as they go about their daily routine. They go to work using electronic fare cards; drive through intersections with traffic cameras; walk down the street past security cameras; surf the internet; pay for purchases with credit/debit cards; text or call their friends; and on and on.

The standard operating procedure for the Domestic Surveillance Directorate is to "collect all available information from all available sources all the time, every time, always".

In the spirit of openness and transparency, here is a partial list of current and planned future data collection targets:

•     internet searches (ie; here's a collection of searches by Federal Government workers)
•     websites visited
•     emails sent and received
•     social media activity (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
•     blogging activity including posts read, written, and commented on - View our patent
•     videos watched and/or uploaded online
•     photos viewed and/or uploaded online
•     mobile phone GPS-location data
•     mobile phone apps downloaded
•     phone call records - View our patent
•     text messages sent and received
•     Skype video calls
•     online purchases and auction transactions
•     credit card/ debit card transactions
•     financial information
•     legal documents
•     travel documents
•     health records
•     cable television shows watched and recorded
•     commuter toll records
•     electronic bus and subway passes / Smartpasses
•     facial recognition data from surveillance cameras
•     educational records
•     arrest records
•     driver license information”

Community Responses:

“ In one aspect, I believe that electronic data being monitored is a good thing because they can be alert of what is going on and can potentially catch harmful people and on another hand it can be very invasive. As a technology user, I feel it would harm my privacy. I feel they should only monitor those who are an obvious threat or search unusual things on google or the internet.”

“It’s interesting and I certainly have my share of concerns regarding these practices.”

Personal Statement:

     This issue directly affects me because I am a U.S. citizen and technology user, which means that my own electronic data and activity is constantly monitored and recorded along with millions of other Americans. This dragnet-type mass surveillance creates endless possibilities for innocent Americans’ civil, constitutional, and human rights to be consequently violated. By simply viewing a certain photo or watching a video online, you could be flagged and targeted by the federal government for increased surveillance and monitoring. The could also be targeted for posting a comment to a blog or twitter account expressing critical views of social or political issues. Should resulting further investigation ensue, individuals are often subjected to harassment, intimidation, and threats by law enforcement officials.

     This poses serious threats to our nation’s democracy and the explicit liberties that are constitutionally guaranteed to citizens. Specifically, first amendment rights are at risk in that individuals no longer have the freedom to openly express their political opinions, dissent, or criticisms without fear of increased government scrutiny and retaliation. Additionally, fourth amendment privileges are undoubtedly being violated as mass amounts of data from millions of personally owned electronic possessions are being seized, without warrant or probable cause, by intelligence agencies every day.

     My understanding of civic engagement has been broadened by this assignment. I previously had a very concrete, structured imagining of what civic engagement meant. Now, I understand that civic engagement can take many forms and can be carried out in a variety of creative means. I was not surprised by the number of people I found who were affected by mass government surveillance. Although, only two individuals I approached were willing to have their photo published on a blog relating to this topic, nearly every person in the U.S. is at some point involved. I was actually surprised by feedback from interviewees stating that they supported the practices. If I were to redo this assignment, perhaps I would find more creative attention-drawing tactics to bring awareness to this issue. I do feel that I was successful in my presentation. I was able to bring to individuals’ conscious a more heightened awareness of illegal, corrupt, and abusive government surveillance practices. I definitely feel that members of my surrounding community and the outlying community will be enlightened and impacted, to a considerable extent, by my blog post.

Sources:

https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/warrantless-surveillance-under-section-702-fisa

https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/warrantless-surveillance-under-section-702-fisa

https://nsa.gov1.info/data/