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Government Conducted Email Surveillance, What is the Impact on Society and Privacy?

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It is common knowledge that technological innovation has made email surveillance as easy as eavesdropping on a telephone conversation.

Back doors that have been built into telecommunication infrastructures allow for almost immediate real-time surveillance of emails and other forms of electronic communication that passes through the networks of the information industry.

These systems allow for almost immediate mass data gathering by a government and is apparently also open to either mass negligence or alleged misinterpretation.

This includes the ability to monitor the average individual by tapping into the growing amount of consumer data being collected by the private sector.

It’s increasingly clear that the government is capable of, and in fact does, collect literally millions of pieces of information about individuals.

There are also experimental programs being tested to bring all the data together and create dossiers about individuals.

Very real surveillance systems exist to monitor email and other network communication channels.

There is no way to safeguard intellectual property under these conditions.

Officials have access to all communicated trade secrets, in some cases even collaborating with other agencies in the supposed interest of uncovering international terrorist groups.

Governments argue that email surveillance forms part of the security infrastructure and they deny that the surveillance is invasive and in any way objectionable.

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Mark Klein and the NSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8eWEuQQKY&feature=emb_logo

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Illegal Surveillancing

In 2008, the media uncovered facts of how the FBI explained away human error when they contested a lawsuit about wrongful email surveillance.

This had apparently been approved by the secretive court, FISA.

This legal body approves domestic data surveillance and other forms of monitoring.

Most of the details surrounding the lawsuit remains unpublished, due to the classified nature of the work involved.

Apparently the granted warrant was misinterpreted as allowing for the entire network to be monitored, rather than just a single email address.

During the proceedings it came to light that the surveillance network is open to human error or alleged misinterpretation. So, not only do they get it wrong, but no mention is made of the unwarranted cost factors.

The FISA court almost never denies FBI surveillance requests.

Apparently the court wrapped the FBI on the knuckles for submitting false affidavits in support of warrant applications, dragging out surveillance long past what had been approved and also for seeking information beyond what had been authorized

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Email Surveillance Cybercrime

What is of most concern is the fact that this information gathering seems to have become a trend.

It is shown in movies, written about in spy stories and mentioned in passing as a joke.

Who hasn’t heard someone say, ‘the walls have ears’.

Both your personal computer and mobile can now be monitored by the unseen “eye”.

Beyond the collection of mass information is the ability of programs to put all of that information together so that it can be instantly accessible.

However, the major concerns are about the lack of checks on the information that is provided to a Justice Department.

This raises another issue of the inability of people to contest when things go wrong.

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The Impact of Group-Thinking

Throughout history people have been primed with government regulations, political views, and explanations about what is good for a country and its people.

The difficulty is not so much in developing new ideas as it is in escaping from the old accepted ones.

Just because a majority accepts a certain way of thinking does not mean that we should too.

The problems with an accepted way of thinking is that we are not required to think at all. We don’t question it because it seems acceptable to the majority.

Thinking about issues is hard work, it’s so much easier to do what everyone else does, to accept what everyone else does, and hope that they have thought it through.

How many individuals have thought about how email surveillance could impact thier lives?

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