MASS GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
“Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.
― Edward Snowden
How has technology changed — and changed us?
Since 2001, more than half the global population has had regular internet and broadband access¹. The proliferation of handheld technology is nothing short of miraculous. According to the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU), there are more feature phones and smartphones than there are people on our planet. As technology is now both personal and portable, it influences nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Climate change and green technology, healthcare and biotechnology, agriculture and food processing, communication, accessible, online shopping, social media and media consumption- it has become increasingly hard to identify any part of our lives that is untouched by technology. Today, you can do nearly everything online- from learning a new recipe, ordering your daily groceries, and taking care of your festival shopping, to accessing healthcare, filing your taxes, and connecting with friends and family.
There is an abundance of information about ‘you’ online. And this brings up the question of electronic surveillance by governments. This brings up the question of electronic surveillance. CCTV cameras, wiretaps, GPS tracking, and internet surveillance are just a few of the methods that are capable of scrutinizing your behavior, beliefs, and habits. Ostensibly, government surveillance will not impact our lives other than making them more comfortable and safe. But does it take away from the fact that it is intrusive and invasive, no matter how discreet? Or are the upsides large enough to overshadow the lack of privacy?
Encryption without data access control is meaningless.
On, data security and privacy…
Data Security means the organization that has collected your data has implemented enough controls to provide secure access to the data from anyone. Anyone means both Trusted users (employees at the company or users) and Un-Trusted users (such as hackers). Privacy, on the other hand, is about respecting the user’s preferences for handling the data-consent, notice, and regulatory obligations. Privacy goes hand in hand with data security because privacy is the right of a common man to be free from uninvited surveillance and data security is the force behind our right to privacy. In recent years, several laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which is a state statute intended to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area for all citizens of the European Union.
The definition of “data privacy” itself is notoriously complex. Hence, there is no Global Data Privacy Law. The different definitions of data privacy used in different pieces of legislation are extremely confusing as what is deemed “reasonable” differs significantly in each law, and so do the penalties for breaking them.
It is also interesting to note that selling of data by large private organizations either between themselves or to governments is a tried and tested practice.
“The Internet is the most liberating tool for humanity ever invented, and also the best for surveillance. It’s not one or the other. It’s both.”
-John Perry Barlow
Benefits Of Government Surveillance
Mass surveillance has been cited as necessary to fight terrorism, prevent crime and social unrest, and protect national security. In any crisis, time saved is lives saved. Public surveillance helps in crime prevention by making crime investigation and catching culprits easier for law enforcement. It also acts as a deterrent to crime. There is also a need to collect and create databases of people’s medical history. Accurate, instantaneous data, can help identify outbreaks early and direct healthcare resources where they make the most impact. This helps prevent and control the spread of diseases. That there are benefits of such surveillance cannot be denied.
Give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Effects of Government Surveillance
Consider the potential for abuse when your personal data is archived in somebody else’s hands. For example, in 2019 an American court² found that the FBI may have violated the rights of potentially millions of Americans — including its agents and informants — by improperly searching through information obtained by the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance program. U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg condemned the malpractice — “These opinions reveal devastating problems with the FBI’s backdoor searches…through Americans’ emails, international and domestic phone calls and web browsing activities.” On the other side of the globe, China makes use of a Skynet system of CCTV cameras and AI to text message fines and assign social credit or Citizen Scores in real-time.
It monitors its citizens through the internet and the Chinese messaging app, WeChat. All messages sent through a WeChat group are monitored and stored for six months. Even conversations deleted by WeChat users can be retrieved back by Tencent, the application’s operator. All of this brings to mind Orwell’s Thought Police who discover and punish personal and political thoughts that are unapproved by Ingsoc’s regime. The internet is rife with memes about China’s supposed surveillance tech which monitors the brain waves and emotions of all of China.
So, here’s a series of questions to be asked when we determine if a method of surveillance is ‘appropriate’ for the government to adopt.
- Is the surveillance done with the consent of every individual?
- Will people be allowed to refuse?
- Are the surveillants also subject to the same conditions?
- Are there well-defined means of redress in case of abuse or violation?
- Will people be allowed to update or enter alternate data?
- Is the information being collected from everybody or a specific community? Why?
- What would happen if a particular type of surveillance is not employed?
Biometrics, phone records, financial records, medical history-where does it stop? If the government requires you to be transparent in your everyday life, it is only fair that the government remains transparent in its methods and goals. We need a stable balance between national security and information privacy. Governments may defend themselves by saying, “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” but it is an intrinsic expectation that our personal affairs remain private as long as we exist within the boundaries of a free society. Of course, given that information is the new name of the game, we cannot turn off the cameras because ‘Justice is blind’. Surveillance is the price of living in the digital era.
Therefore, Mass Government Surveillance will remain ethical only if those who authorize and carry out surveillance are held publicly accountable and have well-defined parameters to perform their work.
