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Andrei Onciu

Mrs.Morris

CCP English Composition

2 November 2023

Should Government Surveillance Programs Contiune?

Should Big Brother Stay in Control?

With the ever increasing digital landscape of our world, there seems to be a noticeable

level of connectivity that we share with our digital devices, to the point where our lives are

interwoven with every text message, social media post and phone call we make. With this

unparalleled interconnectedness, we also share the heavy burden of having our everyday lives

surveilled and recorded by the government. As technology continues to expand, the government

should err on the side of focusing on protecting the privacy of its citizens instead of encroaching

on them.

Government surveillance undeniably and unabashedly infringes on their own citizens’

sacred civil liberties in profound ways. In many instances, when the United States government

relentlessly monitors and scrutinizes nearly every facet of an individual's life, be it through their

online activities or even through casual word-of-mouth conversations, the United States

government is undeniably infringing upon that person’s intellectual freedom. As Professor Neil

M. Richards states, “Such intellectual surveillance is especially dangerous because it can cause

people to not experiment with new, controversial, or deviant ideas. To protect our intellectual

freedom to think without state over-sight or interference, we need...intellectual privacy''

(Richards). With the lack of new ideas allowed through government surveillance, it essentially

infringes on the freedom of expression that is included in the First Amendment of the U.S
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Constitution. United States government monitoring not only infringes on First Amendment rights

but also Fourth Amendment rights. In 2018, secret court documents revealed that “the FBI’s

procedures for accessing Americans’ communications that are “incidentally'' collected...violated

both the statute (FISA) and the Fourth Amendment” (Goitein) The Fourth Amendment of the

United States Consitution vehemently protects citizens from unwarranted and unconstitutional

searches and seizures by the United States government. Nonetheless, the FBI violated and

transgressed the constitutional amendment through their often warrantless invasive surveillance

of citizens' emails. When a government institution routinely and persistently violates a law and

value set in place by the government itself, there is undoubtedly a highly problematic and

concerning precedent set in place that not only allows but arguably encourages the government

to do so routinely and with little or no regard for the very principles it was established to uphold.

Beyond the possible violations of citizen’s rights and civil liberties, government

surveillance also raises questions about the security of the information amassed by institutions

like the NSA or FBI. Nothing is perfect and government institutions are certainly no exception to

this rule. According to a report from CyberEdge in 2022 , 68.2 percent of surveyed government

organizations were compromised by one or more cyber attacks within the past 12 months

(Pattison-Gordon) . With the alarming amount of organizations compromised, it is safe to say

that the government’s collection of private information through online surveillance puts many

people’s private information at risk of malicious and catastrophic cyber attacks. In the same

report, ransomeware caused outages at 52 percent of the public sector organizations surveyed.

(Pattison-Gordon). In light of this report, it becomes clear that that government entities are at

consistently and undeniably high risk of being compromised, and as a result, this places the
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highly confidential and sensitive private information of countless millions of citizens in profound

jeopardy.

While proponents of government surveillance often and frequently cite its essential and

indispensable role in upholding and safeguarding national security and the prevention of possible

terror attacks, in reality, government surveillance is not nearly as effective as it is naively thought

to be. In 2014, former NSA contractor and infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden

specifically and pointedly stated in a court hearing for the European Union Paraliament that

“Dragnet mass surveillance is fundamentally and inherently ineffective at preventing terrorism”

(Omtzigt) and that it undeniably results in a society that is “not only less liberal, but, crucially,

less safe.” (Omtzigt). Snowden, who worked for the NSA and had deep and firsthand experience

as to the alleged effectiveness of government surveillance, candidly admitted that the

surveillance program the NSA implemented was inherently ineffective in curtailing or preventing

any terror attacks. This expert testimony shines a glaring light on the usefulness and efficacy, or

rather the lack thereof, of mass surveillance and calls into question the widely held, yet

misguided, belief that it plays a crucial and indispensable role in upholding and safeguarding

national security and the cherished principles that underpin a democratic society.

The government should lessen the scope of its surveillance in order to protect the privacy

and security of its citizens. While there are arguments in favor of surveillance as a necessary tool

for protecting the nation from threats, the potential drawbacks and limitations must not be

overlooked. The infringement on civil liberties, the risks to data security, and the questions about

the effectiveness of mass surveillance all raise significant concerns. Striking the right balance

between security and individual rights is a complex challenge that should require careful

consideration and scrutiny in this ever digitized world.

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Works Cited

Goitein, Elizabeth. “How the FBI Violated the Privacy Rights of Tens of Thousands of

Americans.” Brennan Center for Justice, 24 Oct. 2023,

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-fbi-violated-privacy-rights-tens-t

housands-americans#:~:text=A%20recently%20released%20secret%20court,routinely%2

0violated%20the%20Fourth%20Amendment.

Omtzigt , Pieter. “Edward Snowden: ‘Mass Surveillance Is Ineffective at Preventing Terrorism.’”

Https://Pace.Coe.Int/, 4 Aug. 2014,

pace.coe.int/en/news/4967/snowden-la-surveillance-massive-ne-permet-pas-de-prevenir-l

e-terrorisme-.

Pattison-Gordon, Jule. “Most Governments Were Hacked in the Past Year, Reports Reveal.”

GovTech, GovTech, 19 Apr. 2022,

www.govtech.com/security/most-governments-were-hacked-in-the-past-year-reports-reve

al#:~:text=A%20November%202021%20international%20report,within%20the%20past

%2012%20months.

Richards, Neil M. “The Dangers of Surveillance.” Harvard Law Review, 24 Mar. 2023,

harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-126/the-dangers-of-surveillance/#:~:text=First%2C%20s

urveillance%20is%20harmful%20because,about%20political%20and%20social%20issue

s.
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