Global Surveillance

Surveillance is a global phenomenon as with the advancement of technologies and global networks, individuals have the ability to get access to and gain information that they should be restricted from. Before all these technological advancements, and subsequent global networks, information was much more difficult to acquire, and it was much easier to keep restricted information, hidden. This is not longer the case. There are many people who have the knowledge to be able to gain access to things that are not for their minds to know. Therefore, surveillance has become a huge issue, as there is a need to protect restricted information, as it could contain public sensitive information, and it should not be able to be obtained by particular people. However on the other hand, global networks has allowed for the ability to acquire more information, and it could be said to be part of one’s freedom, to be able to seek the information they want. Moreover, whilst surveillance predominantly serves to protect society at large, at the same time, it is hurting our privacy rights. Surveillance means that people can view what an individual is doing online, what websites they view, things they purchase, music they listen to etc, and this is a huge invasion of privacy. Therefore, this has resulted in a debate of how far should surveillance go and whether they are doing more harm than good, and this is why surveillance has become a global phenomenon.