John Marquardt
Prof. Debby Moninger
ENGL 1010: Expository Writing I
12-11-13
The Truth About Government Monitoring
Every time someone sits on a computer and goes to a website, someone is
watching. With the new age of technology and Internet, privacy is decreasing rapidly.
When signing up for programs online how much information is required? At the very
least, most will ask for address and sometimes even a social security number. Bad right?
But how can consumers avoid giving out personal information? Ironic considering the
reason for requiring information in the first place was to protect identity and ensure the
authenticity of people.
The Internet was invented to rapidly communicate over a large area. During the
cold war, military men and scientists worried that a missile strike from Russia could
destroy all network lines that made long-distance communication possible. Without longdistance communication, Americans would be vulnerable since the country is so big. In
1962, a scientist from M.I.T. named J.C.R. Licklider thought of a solution to this
problem. He wanted to organize a “galactic network” of computers that could talk to one
another. In 1965, a different scientist actually made Lickliders ideas possible. He
developed a way of sending information from one computer to another that they called
“packet switching.” So was packet switching just a different name for today’s Internet?
No, not even close. Packet switching breaks data down into blocks before sending it to its
destination, that way each packet can take its own route from place to place.
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The beginning of the first true Internet was an organization called the ARPAnet.
They sent the first Internet message from one computer to another. The first computer
was in a research lab at UCLA and the second was at Stanford. Each computer was the
size of a small house! The first message sent was short and very simple. They sent
“LOGIN.” Even such a small word caused the whole system to crash! Not only did it
crash the system, only the first two letters went through. However, it did prove that it was
possible to communicate over long distances. In 1969 just four computers were
connected to the ARPAnet, but the network grew steadily during the 1970s. Throughout
the 1980s only researchers and scientists used the Internet to send their files and data
from computer to computer.
Internet as we know it today was introduced in 1991 when a computer
programmer in Switzerland named Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web.
He changed it so that it was not just a way to send files from one place to another but to
an actual web of information that anyone on the Internet can access and read. Since then,
the Internet has changed and evolved in many ways. The first Internet browser was called
Mosaic. Mosaic offered a user-friendly way to search the web similar to Google or
Yahoo. From then on there have been many Internet browsers and the Internet is used in
almost everything people do today.
What really matters is our individual safety while using the Internet. Why would
the government monitor our Internet use in the first place doesn’t that violate American’s
rights as citizens? According to the constitution as of right now, the government
monitoring what people say and do on the Internet is ok. There is
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The NSA is the National Security Agency that is in charge of keeping foreign
enemies from gaining access to important or classified information. The NSA was
founded to protect American citizens. Unfortunately, while trying to protect our citizens
they often violate individual rights by looking for any suspicious activity. The NSA has
had means of monitoring Internet communications as far back as Microsoft’s Windows
95, the first version of Windows with built-in Internet connectivity. The monitoring then
was much different than it is now. In September 2007 everything changed between the
NSA and Americans when the company Microsoft, under an NSA operation called Prism
agreed to be wiretapped and have user data monitored knowingly. Soon afterward other
major companies followed suit; Yahoo in 2008, Google and Facebook in 2009, YouTube
in 2010, Skype and AOL in 2011 and Apple in 2012. All major companies currently
active on the Internet has agreed to the monitoring! Scary right? But which data is being
monitored? That’s the scary part of this “Prism” project. The Prism project gives the
NSA the potential to monitor all communication. It can collect email, chat (video, voice),
videos, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conferencing, and logins to online social
networking sites.
Isn’t that illegal? Doesn’t that violate our rights as Americans? Yes it does but the
NSA has been carful to avoid any information that the monitoring is being carried out
indiscriminately of US citizens, because that would violate our forth amendment right of
unreasonable search and seizure. So how does it work then? The monitoring isn’t
random and it supposedly doesn’t violate our rights. They use scanner type systems
called CDNs or content delivery networks that basically scan for words that may be
worth investigating.
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Why isn’t this illegal? The reason this is not illegal right now is that the framers
of the constitution didn’t know anything of the technologies that people use today.
Internet has changed the way the public lives and interacts with each other. It’s time the
constitution adapts with our changing society. While lawmakers haven’t amended the
constitution yet, there are a few laws that have been adopted that most people should
discover.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) sets the standards for how
the government accesses digital information that is the citizens. This law was passed in
1986. The ECPA allows the government to look at personal files including email,
facebook messages, and a variety of other files with only a subpoena and no warrant once
those items are 180 days old. Recently Google reported giving up more than 18,000
requests for information from the government. That’s just Google’s half a year report,
imagine all the other website requests too! Everything has changed since 1986
computers, Internet, peoples way of doing business, and even they way we live. The only
thing that hasn’t changed since than was this law it’s still the same as it was twenty-seven
years ago. You may wonder why hasn’t this been changed? Well they have tried to
update the ECPA, but it failed to reach a vote on the full senate floor. A few months ago,
member of the House of Representatives filed for another update but it’s still working its
way through the system. Right now as the law stands “A paper letter sitting in your home
or office drawer has a significantly higher level of constitutional protection compared to
an email right now,” says Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software
Alliance. So how do we change this?
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Another law, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA),
monitors how companies share information with the federal government. Information that
the companies turn over to the government goes to the NSA, which is a military side of
the government. It being a military part of government means it must be secret
unfortunately, companies that provide personal identifiable information about United
States citizens have no idea how the information will be used.
Has all this information made you rethink about Internet safety yet? Here is the
crazy part, cell phones also have limited privacy expectations. In America 91 percent of
adults own and use cell phones. Not only can the NSA monitor the Internet on computers,
it monitors cell phone use too. The scariest part of the NSA monitoring phones is the way
people react when they know it’s happening. Unlike with the Internet, most people
actually are ok with the NSA monitoring their phones, according to people-press.org, 56
percent say the NSA tracking the phone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable
way to monitor and investigate terrorism. Currently 62 percent of people say it is
important for the government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if at intrudes
personal privacy. But, there is hope for our citizens! Only 27 percent of people over 50
are against the government monitoring what they say and do. That is a very low
percentage for older people. But the younger generation is more divided with their ideas.
They split right down the middle in thinking its ok. This is great news, maybe younger
people realize how easy it is to take information online because they grew up using
technology and know how to use it better.
Many Americans are outraged by this intrusion of privacy. “The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke. Are
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citizens not doing enough about this, while the basic right of privacy slips away?
Once privacy is totally gone, citizens will never be able to get it back. What about
generations to come? As citizens forfeit privacy, they will never even know what is
being done to them is wrong since they don’t know anything different. As Adolf
Hitler said, “The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is
to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and
almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights
and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be
reversed.” Hitler one of the evilest people the world has ever seen. He wrote a book
called Mein Kampf in his book he mentions slowly eroding his citizens rights away
numerous times.
The world is facing a new problem that has never been seen before “The
Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand,
the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” – Eric Schmidt These new
technologies are the most useful inventions, but they’re also the most dangerous.
Now you can be in places all over the world in seconds. People can tell the world
how they feel at any second with social media. You can do all your banking, talking,
working, shopping, and even dating online. Internet allows you to maintain a
preferred lifestyle all the time without even moving from the couch, but what about
personal safety while doing all of those things?
How can citizens fix these problems? This is not a government issue, it’s a people
issue. People should control themselves rather than have the government watching and
controlling citizens’ communication. America is the land of the free and the home of the
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brave it’s time American citizens speak out against government monitoring all
communication. Our founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they knew
that American citizens were allowing this. The truth is if people don’t start standing up
for their rights, they won’t have any rights.
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Work Cited
Butler, Brandon. "4 Internet Privacy Laws You Should Know about." Network World.
Networkworld.com, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/031213-privacylaws267614.html?page=1>.\
"History of the Internet." History of the Internet. Illinois.edu, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
<http://education.illinois.edu/wp/commercialism/history-of-theinternet.htm>.
Inseong, Lee, Kim Jaesoo, and Kim Jinwoo. "Use Contexts For The Mobile Internet: A
Longitudinal Study Monitoring Actual Use Of Mobile Internet Services."
International Journal Of Human-Computer Interaction 18.3 (2005): 269-292.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
Kerne, Sean Michael. "Snowden Leaks Show NSA Targets Tor." Eweek (2013): 8.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic." Pew Research
Center for the People and the Press RSS. People-press.org, 10 June 201310. Web.
21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.people-press.org/2013/06/10/majority-views-nsaphone-tracking-as-acceptable-anti-terror-tactic/>.
Miller, Michael J. "Forward Thinking." PC Magazine 20.19 (2001): 7. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
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Sullum, Jacob. "Every move you make: how new surveillance technologies threaten
privacy." Reason May 2012: 10. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 7 Nov.
2013.
Teinowitz, Ira, and Jennifer Gilbert. "Online Privacy Disputes Reach FTC Panel, Courts."
Advertising Age 71.5 (2000): 92. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
The Invention of the Internet." Web log post. History.com. A&E Television Networks,
n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.history.com/topics/invention-of-theinternet>.
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