Foreign governments and their leaders are demanding
explanation and reforms after Edward Snowden leaking top secret NSA information
about the US government spying on allies. The American government is claiming
that their priority is to protect their citizens from the threat of terrorism,
fair enough. However, if the NSA is collecting extensive data, literally spying
on its own citizens and foreign governments doesn’t that imply that these are
all considered terrorists?
If
the US government is able to obtain telephone records of various EU leaders, it
must be incredibly easy for them to spy on any one of us; and apparently they
just do exactly that. But do we care? Are we concerned about protecting our
security and liberty? We don’t know about you, but we certainly do!
Few might argue that no one is interested in
looking at my stuff anyway, so I don’t care. However according to David
Sirota’s statement you definitely should. “If you don’t speak up for
everybody’s rights you better be ready for your rights to be trampled when you
are least expected” were his exact words which should make all of us think
again. We need to preserve the right to be free from unwarranted interference
in our lives. Don’t you think?
We share a great part of our lives on media, but
these platforms let us decide how much privacy we want to have. You do not
necessarily need to be suspected of doing something illegal or dangerous to a
nation or its national security, which is always the top of mind concern of the
NSA operation – apparently. The NSA has no limitations when scrutinizing our
lives: collecting your phone records, checking your email or private messages
on Facebook, etc. They are violating our privacy, the right that we are all
“supposed” to have.
Check out an interesting video that we found: why should we care about NSA’s practices?. Have a look and tell us what you
think!
what I find truly disturbing is that not only information we willingly share via social media is being collected, but also the conversations we have in private chats and mails (this also includes text messengers such as whatsapp or bbm). The only way nowadays to stay completely safe from such surveillance is to completely stay away from technology, which is a) impossible and b) not a solution to the problem itself.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is very troubling to know that any messages we communicate using new media technology can be accessed by institutions such as the NSA without decent motivations. The fact that we now have to expect to be 'watched' at all times even when talking to friends and family in private settings is indeed disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, it seems unimaginable to function in a world of virtual interconnectedness without the integration of new technology. Then the question arises; are we supposed to choose between a 'stone age' like life in terms of technology or a modernized 'information age' just to escape extreme surveillance by governmental institutions being paranoid about potential terrorism?
So what are people going to do about it, if there is anything they can do. I think the only way is to speak up and demand our intrinsic right to privacy. We need to make use of the opportunities that democracy provides for us, because the governments, after all, are obliged to pursue the best interests of society.