Government Unwarranted Surveillance as an Invasion of Privacy

We use technology in every part of our lives, from the simplest tasks to the ones that are way too complex for mankind to process on their own. These technologies help us in many different ways, by reminding us on tasks, to manufacturing goods and shipping them off to another part of the world. One of the most often used piece of technology is our phone, and coming in second is our personal computers. We use these devices everyday, to communicate with one another and keep in touch. Yet we forget that it’s never a two-way conversation, rather a three-way conversation.

We’d go to extreme lengths to get away from those who are dying with curiosity, we’d lower our voices, change the pattern of our speech, and even go elsewhere. Just when we think that we’re safe from prying eyes and probing ears, we never realize the true spy lies within. Those who listen to our every word, no matter how soft our whispers. Those who see just as much as us, no matter how enclosed the space we’re in. The true spy lies within and we fail to realize that. They hide in our high-priced valuables; our phone and PC.

Is that not great? Having absolutely no sense of privacy at all, even when you feel safe from the world is amazing. Obviously, it’s nice to know that there’s someone out there who knows exactly where and what you’re doing twenty four hours and seven days a week. Not only that, the best part is knowing that they can use the information that they have on you to turn against you, or even accuse you with a crime you didn’t commit. Oh they will and have done so, to multiple innocent civilians that had all their devices secretly tapped into.

What is it called, you might ask. It is called unwarranted surveillance. According to Duke Policies, unwarranted surveillance is the capturing or recording of photos, audios, and / or videos of an individual or mass groups in locations or situations where they have expectations for their privacy. It is called unwarranted due to the fact that these surveillances are conducted without a warrant from legal or government officials. Not only that, surveillance without consent from both or all the parties involved would be an invasion of privacy, making it one of the many problems that branch out due to unwarranted surveillance.

The invasion of privacy due to unwarranted surveillance is closely tied to the violation of Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Based on the United Nations, said article states “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” Not only that, the invasion of one’s privacy due to unwarranted surveillance may lead to bigger life threatening problems, such as the accusation of committing and / or planning a crime.

Who would do such a thing? One of the world’s favorite government agencies, the FBI. The internet has speculated in a somewhat-joking manner, that the FBI are spying on the people through their phones and personal computers, in 2016 they were proved to be right. The FBI revealed that they managed to gain access into an Iphone, with the help of an Israeli phone forensics company, Cellebrite. The fact that the FBI has and still is spying on citizens has become a meme back in 2017. Though it is a serious matter, the internet community still makes jokes about it.

What about the public? Well, they are quite divided. Based on Amnesty, only 20% stood with the FBI, believing that it is ethical for the FBI to tap into our devices in order to prevent and solve cases. 71% of the public believed that the FBI should not be able to tap into our devices, no matter what the reason, due to them wanting their privacy respected. The rest seems to be confused and have an unclear stance regarding the matter. Either way, this is still a debate that goes around until today, with the FBI still spying on us.

Obviously, another question would be why? What is so intriguing to the Federal agents that they would snoop around our devices? Calling back to what was previously stated in this essay, the FBI managed to access an Iphone with the help of Cellebrite due to a shooting at San Bernardino. The feds claimed that the Iphone was the key evidence in solving the case, which is why they pressed Apple to give them backdoor access. Apple obviously refused, knowing the risks of their customers privacy. So, the answer to why they do it should be to prevent and solve crimes.

As opposed to what many believe, the FBI is not the first to break into our devices. The NSA actually created a program called PRISM, which is basically surveillance on American and worldwide citizens. Based on American Civil Liberties Union, this program was built under the order of President Bush. Knowing that 9/11 happened during Bush’s era, he immediately requested a program that can decipher the plans of terrorists and prevent it from happening. The program falls under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, where they intercept billions of international communications, for reasons outside of terrorism prevention.

Knowing that civilians have both the FBI and NSA watching over them, surely there would be multiple cases regarding the harm caused by such illegal practice. A man named John Lewis got added to the governments watchlist in 2004, which doesn’t sound like much, until every man bearing the name John Lewis had issues when it comes to boarding flights. What does this have to do with the FBI and / or NSA conducting unwarranted surveillance? They were watching these men even though they know that they’re not the John Lewis that they’re after, they still watched to “ensure absolute safety”.

Not only that, one of the most popular case of invasion of privacy due to unwarranted surveillance was the Facebook scandal in the 2016 presidential election. The one where they collected more than 50 million Facebook users profile information. Based on Vice, users were told to fill in their email and email contact in order to “help you find more friends”. The information was then leaked and used to advertise extremely specific products and / or services. The worst part, Mark Zuckerburg and his team “did not realize” the problem until then, and promised to be better (spoiler alert: they didn’t).

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act request in early 2017 to the U.S Department of Justice, in order to find out more about the circumstances in which government agencies find acceptable to spy on American citizens. The Justice Department stated that in late 2016, a 31-page memorandum stated a new notice policy, which required government agencies to inform those they were surveilling. Government agencies being government agencies refused to release any part of the memorandum and continued to spy on American citizens in secrecy. Due to this, Americans can’t seek help from courts.

The NSA and other government agencies (such as the FBI) were sued by EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) on behalf of AT&T customers in 2008. The case file named Jewel v NSA is aimed to stop the illegal surveillance of their communications and communications records. Not only that, NSA and other government agencies were sued to hold the government officials accountable who illegally authorized the surveillance of AT&T customers and American citizens. According to EFF, former AT&T telecommunications technician, Mark Klien, showed that Internet copies were sent to a secret room in San Francisco, controlled by the NSA.

Those aren’t the only time government agencies were sued or had a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against them. In early December 2018, ACLU filed another Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government in order to have them release information about the abused usage of Executive Order 12.333. Executive Order 12.333 is an order that was signed by President Reagan in 1981, and has been modified multiple times since then. Government agencies such as the NSA and FBI have relied on to have some sort of “authority” to conduct unwarranted surveillance on American and foreigners alike.

Though these organizations fighting for the protection of the people's privacy hasn’t affected these government agencies, the action of those agencies surely have effects to the people. According to Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), the way people are behaving on the internet changes with the knowledge of being surveilled by different people. They stated that 86% of internet users have done a wide range of things from encrypting their email to removing cookies in order to remove or mask their digital footprints. While 55% of users tried to avoid surveillance from specific people, such as the government, organisations, even people.

Other than masking digital footprints, people who know that they are being surveilled are more likely to suppress their own beliefs, that are deemed controversial. As stated by Canadian Journalist for Free Expression, a study conducted in 2016 asked people to read a fictional news about the U.S targeting and Islamic State and were then asked about how they felt on the topic. The twist is, they were reminded that the government was watching their activities before they answered, and thus a majority of the respondents suppressed their opinions that they believed would lead the government to scrutinize them.

So what can we do about it? Not much, possible solutions and / or alternatives lies in the hands of those in power (hint: starts with a ‘G’ and has 10 letters). They would be the ones capable of taking action and actually do something about the escalating hoard of ordinary citizens data. The government should ideally be able to pass a law regarding the unwarranted surveillance conducted by their agencies in order to secure the homeland (which they still fail to do even with unwarranted surveillance). Passing said law would be able to grant privacy to American and worldwide citizens.

The law shall not disregard the need for surveillance of those on the government watchlist, while also respecting the privacy of citizens. A law that would supposedly benefit both the government and citizens ideally would state that government agencies are allowed to conduct surveillance (with a warrant) on those who have landed on the government watchlist, and no one else (unless they have ties with them and are deemed concerning). These government agencies are not to abuse their rights to tap into one’s devices to secure the homeland in order to protect and grand the right of privacy to citizens.

As stated earlier, there is not much that the people can do, however conducting peaceful protests to grant their privacy may be possible. Pushing the government to act is by far, one of the most effective ways of getting the government to provide and carry out a solution, because they are supposed to serve and protect the people. If there are enough people who can speak out on their right to privacy, then they would be able to move the government to pass a law regarding the importance of government agencies respecting the privacy of American and worldwide citizens alike.

In conclusion, unwarranted surveillance conducted by government agencies has many reasons. One of them being is to be able to keep an eye on those listed on the government’s watchlist. However, government agencies abuse the article that supports them surveilling certain people, and has led to mass unwarranted surveillance on innocent citizens, thus invading the privacy of the citizens. The invasion of privacy leads to people suppressing their opinions and hiding their tracks. To make sure that this does not lead to further problems, the people should push their government to create a law that protects their privacy and nation.

Works Cited

1. “#UnfollowMe: 5 Reasons We Should All Be Concerned About Government Surveillance.” Amnesty International USA, 18 Mar. 2015, https://www.amnestyusa.org/unfollowme-5-reasons-we-should-all-be-concerned-about-government-surveillance/.
2. “ACLU V. DOJ – FOIA Lawsuit Seeking the Government's Policy on Notifying Americans When It Spies on Them.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/cases/aclu-v-doj-foia-lawsuit-seeking-governments-policy-notifying-americans-when-it-spies-them.
3. “ACLU v. DOJ: FOIA Lawsuit Seeking Information on Federal Agencies' Surveillance of Social Media.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/cases/aclu-v-doj-foia-lawsuit-seeking-information-federal-agencies-surveillance-social-media.
4. “ACLU v. ODNI – FOIA Lawsuit Seeking Records About Government Surveillance Under the USA Freedom Act.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/cases/aclu-v-odni-foia-lawsuit-seeking-records-about-government-surveillance-under-usa-freedom-act.
5. “Duke.” Duke Policies: Unauthorized Surveillance/Photography, 18 Dec. 2018, https://policies.duke.edu/students/universitywide/surveillance.php.
6. “Executive Order 12,333 – FOIA Lawsuit.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/cases/executive-order-12333-foia-lawsuit.
7. “Government Agent Watching Me.” Know Your Meme, 24 July 2019, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/government-agent-watching-me.
8. Kahney, Leander. “The FBI Wanted a Backdoor to the IPhone. Tim Cook Said No.” Wired, Conde Nast, 17 Apr. 2019, https://www.wired.com/story/the-time-tim-cook-stood-his-ground-against-fbi/.
9. Toomey, Patrick. “The NSA Continues to Violate Americans' Internet Privacy Rights.” American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union, 23 Aug. 2018, https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/nsa-continues-violate-americans-internet-privacy.
10. “Welcome to the Human Rights E-Course.” United For Human Rights, https://www.humanrights.com/course/lesson/articles-12-18/read-article-12.html.