Unless you have been living under a rock…
with your hands over your ears… while singing loudly… and that rock was on Mars
you will have heard about the NSA PRISM program. PRISM has involved the
warrantless wire tapping and monitoring of millions of US citizens and
non-citizens around the world.
The scale and audacity of this project has been staggering. NSA internal slides included in Snowden’s disclosures purported to show that the NSA could unilaterally access data and perform "extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information" with examples including email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats (such as Skype), file transfers, and social networking details. All of this data is stored at a newly built facility that has the potential storage of a zettabyte (1 000, 000, 000 gigabytes).
This is a huge breach of citizen privacy and we should be very worried that their answer is ‘if you have nothing to hide this won’t be a problem’.
The scale and audacity of this project has been staggering. NSA internal slides included in Snowden’s disclosures purported to show that the NSA could unilaterally access data and perform "extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information" with examples including email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats (such as Skype), file transfers, and social networking details. All of this data is stored at a newly built facility that has the potential storage of a zettabyte (1 000, 000, 000 gigabytes).
This is a huge breach of citizen privacy and we should be very worried that their answer is ‘if you have nothing to hide this won’t be a problem’.
note: If anyone is wondering why the answer nothing to hide is an answer that already acquiesces too much individual privacy read Daniel J Solove’s short essay “I’ve got Nothing to Hide” andother misunderstandings of privacy.
The simplest answer is that we all have
something to hide. We all have passwords on our Facebook and we have all
detagged a photo that we were not proud to be in.
Just as worrying as this breach of privacy
is the very flippant way that our politicians (international politicians and
American), and our broader society is responding to this.
However what scares me more is that the invasion of privacy can so easily be taken one step further. Mobile phone microphones can be activated remotely, without any need for physical access. This "roving bug" feature has been used by law enforcement agencies and intelligence services to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI has the ability surreptitiously listen in on conversations in a car, through the car's built-in emergency and tracking security system. This technology is not far off, but has been used since the 80s. How comfortable do you feel knowing that every conversation that takes place near a mobile phone could be listened and used against you at some future point.
The reality is that what may be used against you may not even be a crime. During Martin Luther King's campaign for equality in America the FBI concluded that King was dangerous due to communist infiltration, the FBI shifted to attempting to discredit King through revelations regarding his private life.
However what scares me more is that the invasion of privacy can so easily be taken one step further. Mobile phone microphones can be activated remotely, without any need for physical access. This "roving bug" feature has been used by law enforcement agencies and intelligence services to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI has the ability surreptitiously listen in on conversations in a car, through the car's built-in emergency and tracking security system. This technology is not far off, but has been used since the 80s. How comfortable do you feel knowing that every conversation that takes place near a mobile phone could be listened and used against you at some future point.
The reality is that what may be used against you may not even be a crime. During Martin Luther King's campaign for equality in America the FBI concluded that King was dangerous due to communist infiltration, the FBI shifted to attempting to discredit King through revelations regarding his private life.
The FBI used information gathered from
wiretaps and intercepts to demonstrate that King was engaged in numerous
extramarital affairs. The FBI distributed reports regarding such affairs to the
executive branch, friendly reporters, potential coalition partners and funding
sources of the SCLC, and King's family.
Can you really say that every conversation
that you have is not an issue because you have nothing to hide? The “nothing to
hide” argument is a simplistic understanding of privacy vs. security. It
represents a singular and narrow way of conceiving of privacy, and it wins by
excluding consideration of the other problems often raised in government
surveillance and data mining programs.
The onus should not be on the individual to prove their innocence, but on the accuser to prove their guilt. If the government thinks I have nothing to hide then why are they listening to my conversations?
The onus should not be on the individual to prove their innocence, but on the accuser to prove their guilt. If the government thinks I have nothing to hide then why are they listening to my conversations?
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