4/7/2017 1 Comment April 07th, 2017Blog 11
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/09/18/internet-surveillance-is-a-necessary-part-of-national-security I chose to read this article to get a point of view from someone who stands with the government’s decision to uphold the internet data collection practices of the National Security Agency (NSA). Although the author regularly uses a strawman argument against those who are opposed to what the NSA is doing, they do have some valid points in their article. An example of their strawmanning can be seen in one of their statements: “The thrust of these comments is that the Internet should be – somehow – immune from any government surveillance of any kind and for any reason” (Gallington 2013). This statement condenses the argument of those opposed to the actions of the NSA down to the desire to do away with the NSA, which is not necessarily true. It is much more likely that those who oppose the NSA actions believe that the stated purpose of those action are valid, but the magnitude and the implementations need to be reined in through democratic process. The author states sending communications on the internet can be imagined like sending letters through the mail. The government has the ability to open letters if they have a reason to believe it is necessary, so that same expectation should be held on internet communications. I believe this to be a fair concept. The issue that I believe many have with the current surveillance programs in place is that it is much more intrusive than how mail is intercepted. The government does not open every piece of mail and make a copy to be stored for an undetermined amount of time and instantly available for analysis, which is essentially what is being done with internet communications. The author then outlines two key questions, I will provide a condensed version of their questions and responses along with what I think are reasonable answers.
1 Comment
Sean O'Fallon
5/9/2017 03:45:18 pm
I agree that reading a person's mail if there is something suspicious about them seems reasonable, but that is totally different from looking at every piece of mail just in case something is found.
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AuthorPearce : CS-SE student Archives
May 2017
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