Government Surveillance in the Digital Age Works CitedQuinonez 1Jaime Quinonez Prof. Rebecca Faery 21W.730 – 06 Imagining the Future 20 November 2003 Government Surveillance in the Digital Age Imagine walking along a busy street in the middle of a sunny day. Also imagine that someone is following you around, videotaping everything you do. Disturbing thought? Even more disturbing is the fact that the United States government is already doing this, and it’s perfectly legal. According to Robert Trigaux, a reporter for the St. Petersburg times, until August of 2003, in Ybor City, Florida, the Tampa Police Department used thirty-six surveillance cameras that scanned faces of all people walking around the entertainment district. These surveillance cameras captured facial images and then compared them to a police database of known felons. This same surveillance system was also used during the Tampa Bay Super Bowl at the Raymond James Stadium, and other cities are attempting to install such a system. However, even though the cameras are used in public places, they still represent a large violation of privacy. Also a violation of our privacy is the government’s usage of the Carnivore Internet surveillance system that can track all of a person’s online activity. The FBI not only has the capability to do so, but in many cases it can lawfully enter a person’s home and alter or even steal information form his or her computer, all without the knowledge of the owner of the computer. Cite as: Jaime Quinonez. Course materials for 21W.730-5: Writing on Contemporary Issues: Imagining the Future, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].Quinonez 2 The government’s ability to gather personal information on its citizens is similar to methods of surveillance in the novels The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and 1984, by George Orwell. In order to prevent the extreme cases of surveillance presented in these novels, it is the public’s responsibility to remain alert to new developments in law enforcement so as to prevent an unreasonable surveillance system from arising. While it may not be possible to clearly defines people’s right to privacy, the public must develop some notion of limits on the government’s ability to invade its citizen’s privacy, and then the public must constantly monitor the government so as to ensure that it does not cross these limits. As technology allows for faster forms of communication, the Untied States government is quick to ensure that it can monitor the most popular forms of communication. Telephone calls and Internet communications are the standard medium of expression today, and the methods that may be used to monitor communication through these mediums are very developed. The telephone is a relatively simple technology, so monitoring someone’s telephone calls is a rather simple task. Mostly, only very large service providers maintain large networks, and so in order to monitor someone, the government can easily determine the specifics by contacting only a few companies. However, Internet communication is far more technologically advanced, and it is much more difficult to monitor people’s Internet communications than it is to monitor their telephone conversations. As the Internet is a relatively new creation, there is little centralization, and even finding someone online can be difficult enough. Still, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has software, nicknamed “Carnivore,” that it can use to monitor all of the Internet activity of a suspected felon, and the suspected felon’s Internet Cite as: Jaime Quinonez. Course materials for 21W.730-5: Writing on Contemporary Issues: Imagining the Future, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].Quinonez 3Service Provider is required to provide the FBI with a physical location through which all of the suspect’s Internet information flows, and the FBI monitors and records all of the suspect’s information that appears suspicious. Furthermore, according to Jim Demspsey, a writer for the Center for Democracy and Technology, the FBI may break any sort of encryption, a coding process used to secure the privacy of the data. This includes not only all emails, but also Internet web traffic and all other forms of communication online. The government thus has the ability to monitor the most common form of communication. While the government may have the physical ability to invade a person’s life online, recording everything they do, many believe that it is prevented from doing so by laws and regulations. Indeed, electronic search warrants are required before using the immense power of Carnivore, and these search warrants must be obtained from federal district court judges, a higher authority than that required for normal search warrants. However, in the endless loopholes of legislation, the FBI can very easily avoid the need for a search warrant. According to Jim Dempsey, The Clinton administration circulated a draft of the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act that included provisions that would allow for secret searches to seize encryption information, disable a computer’s encryption capabilities, or plant a keystroke-monitoring program. When the press received details of the bill, the secret search provisions were eliminated, only to reappear hidden in the details of a bill calling for stricter controls on the use of methamphetamine. However, while these secretive measures may be frowned upon, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, made any such deceit unnecessary as the government became able to openly pass laws that grant authorities such as the FBI the ability to break Cite as: Jaime Quinonez. Course materials for 21W.730-5: Writing on Contemporary Issues: Imagining the Future, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].Quinonez 4other laws. The Patriot Act, meant to grant the President the power to combat terrorism, openly grants authorities the power to secretly invade a person’s home without consent, perform searches, seize property, and not notify the person who was searched. All that is necessary for a search without a warrant is for the authorities to believe there is serious danger to a person or to national