Disagreeing Viewpoint

Ever since 911 and the War on Terror, various groups have been fighting against risking privacy for the sake of national security.  These groups, such as the ACLU and MoveOn.org have made the American citizen aware of the possible violation of Fourth Amendment.  Even with the fight, the federal government continues to pursue surveillance tactics and expansion of data programs. 

Some of the more recent expansions of surveillance are currently being fought against.  The Government is currently collecting personal data from cell phone carriers.  With this information the intelligence agencies gather information of every interaction a person makes.  These detailed investigations can take place without any warrants.  Wouldn’t we prefer to have our conversations reviewed than have our country attacked by terrorists?

Privacy rights defenders suggest that the government doesn’t have the right to information such as airplane flights taken, winnings and losses at casinos, as well as data on the host families of foreign exchange students.  The former analyst of the National Security Agency admitted, “the NSA and FBI have access to virtually every email in the country” (Wyss).  However, in the name of national security, if you don’t have anything to hide, sharing these tidbits of information about your life should not be a problem. 

There are drones that fly around collecting data as we speak.  We don’t know where they are or what they are collecting.  The government is trending more and more invasive collection of surveillance data and is asking for it to become the law.  The anti-data surveillance groups want citizens to act out against these invasive measures.  They do not want people to just sit around doing nothing and allow the government to continue to impose the authority to pry.  The problem for these agencies is that the majority US citizens still remember the 911 attacks and are not willing to allow that kind of terrorism to take place in our country again ever.  Therefore, the people are willing to look the other way when it comes to privacy and allow the government to do what is best for our nation, secure it.

Wyss, James. "The 5 Scariest Expansions of Government Surveillance in 2012." Policymic. Mic Network Inc., 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 June 2013. <http://www.policymic.com/articles/21528/the-5-scariest-expansions-of-government-surveillance-in-2012>.