Government Invasion of Privacy Essay
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Facebook has become the largest social media site with over 1 billion dollars active users as of September 14, 2012. Of those one particular billion users on average for June 2012, 552 , 000, 000 were considered daily lively users. (Potalinski, Oct 4, 2012) The world has gone crazy with social websites. The ability to bring up to date one’s status on whatever has an internet connection has been increased through technical advances in both phones and tablets. The Federal Government regarded it essential to monitor sociable sites on October 26, 2001 together with the inception of the Patriot Take action.
The liberties given to the us government since the Patriot Act was signed in to law has become debated in the potential infringement of an individual’s privacy. This author is convinced the Patriot Act does not violate person privacy privileges. The persons violate their own rights with what they content. The Federal Government displays for potential national reliability threats through watch words. The Patriot Act gives them this kind of right.
Someone has the ability to speak their brain. The Federal Government is merely concerned with content that display potential risks to nationwide security. There have been 50 circumstances of hazards to national security since the Patriot Act’s inception in 2001 which were stopped.
Jerrika from Austin texas Texas was questioned and released several hours following a seemingly harmless personal opinion post on Facebook . com. Did the us government overstep the liberties provided by the Patriot Act to even query Jason? Allow us to find out what the research reveals. Jason from Austin tx Texas just commented on a political post one of his friends had made about Facebook regarding the former Senator Rick Santorum.
Jason would not reveal his full name for the reporter Jason Brashear who have writes to get CivilinWars. com with his story. For having less confusion from now on, the reporter will be observed as Brashear. The comment that acquired Jason in trouble was “I wish there were a magic wand to create Santorum disappear…” This post was taken directly off of the post thread on February 20, 2012. The Austin Authorities and two Williamson State Sherriff’s deputies were alerted to the post and tried to locate Jerr.
After unsuccessfully finding Jerrika at his work, the officers known as Jason make up a meeting later that evening for Jason’s house. The representatives explained these were there due to a possible threat to Senator Santorum. Jerrika did not know that Senator Santorum had a check out planned intended for Austin in the next few days.
The visit was far enough in the future in the post to get the local police force to be delivered to Jason’s property to investigate the actual threat. The officers were there to to research the house for any pictures from the Senator or perhaps evidence of anything at all planned against the Senator. The local authorities deemed that Jerrika was not a threat and no further actions was considered against him. Jason’s Facebook or myspace security settings were create as exclusive.
The personal settings suggest the blogposts are remedied like a personal e-mail between friends. (Brashear, Feb twenty-five, 2012) It had been the perfect thunderstorm for Jerr a seemingly harmless content, the subject of the post coming to town very quickly, and the Government monitoring intended for key words or perhaps phrases. The Federal Government only reacted to key phrases that pinged through all their tracking program. The individual privateness rights of Jason were not violated because of the contents of his content and the potential national protection risk for the presidential prospect former Senator Santorum. Jason’s post put up red flags through the Office of Homeland Security social websites monitoring system with the use of 1 word.
Since the post included the word Santorum, the remaining words became highly relevant to any investigations that adopted. Because the past Senator was a potential usa president candidate intended for the His party Party call him by his name became a red flag item for the Department of Homeland Protection. Had Jerr make the same post, but eliminate the usage of Santorum’s identity, it is the idea of this writer that presently there would have recently been no check out from the local authorities. The use of the ex – Senator’s name on a social networking site was the cause of the analysis of Jerrika by the authorities. It is the National Government’s job to assess just about every potential threat both overseas and household.
By Santorum attempting to become the Republican Party’s candidate to get President of the United States, he became any target intended for acts of terrorism or violence against that necessary protection. If the monitoring of social media by the Federal Government has not been in place, Jerrika may have been conspiring an attack on former Senator Santorum and accomplished a plan of attack without notice. It is because of the Patriot Act and the liberties to monitor the earth through social media sites that allowed the Federal Government to check into Jason being a potential risk, make a decision that he was not just a threat, and allow him to return to his everyday routine.
This has not been the truth for additional potential terrorists after the Patriot Act was signed in to law in 2001. Considering that the inception of the Patriot Act in Oct of 2001, 50 potential terrorist plots have been averted. (Carafano, Bucci, Zuckerman, Interest 25, 2012) All 50 of the potential threats differ with just how technology helped in the info being obtained by the Federal Government. Every one of the threats were straight affected by the Patriot Take action.
The Patriot Act is Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Ideal Tools Instructed to Interrupt and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Take action of 2001. (Public Rules 107-56, Oct 26, 2001) The Patriot Act considered it required to monitor the changing technical world. It covers many techniques from national to international risk, banking to social media, and terrorist to good citizen. Through the years the Federal Government has created a buzz word data source that builds a “red flag” when seen or heard. The Department of Homeland Security released a copy of their Analyst’s Desktop Binder in 2011 which in turn houses 337 words or perhaps phrases which might be considered news words.
What or terms that are within the Analyst’s Desktop Binder are believed a baseline or perhaps the beginning. Which means that at a minimum the 337 terms or terms listed are monitored each and every day. Words or perhaps phrases happen to be added to and removed from checklist on a daily basis.
Record is modified based on current events occurring. Current occasions change what may become a target pertaining to acts of violence and terrorism. These words are monitored through the Department of Homeland Security’s National Functions Center. The Department of Homeland Security’s website (http://www.dhs.gov/about-office-operations-coordination-and-planning) describes the National Operations Center. “Through the National Operations Center, the Office supplies real-time situational awareness and monitoring in the homeland, coordinates incidents and response actions, and, in conjunction with the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, problems advisories and bulletins concerning threats to homeland reliability, as well as specific protective measures.
The NOC – which will operates round the clock, seven days weekly, 365 days 12 months – runs information showing to help deter, detect, and stop terrorist acts and to manage domestic occurrences. Information on home-based incident managing is shared with Emergency Procedures Centers by any means levels throughout the Homeland Secureness Information Network (HSIN). ” The NOC is the monitoring center for the Division of Homeland Security. They are the responsible for monitoring and interacting potential threats to different agencies inside the Federal Government.
Most if only a few potential dangers that are halted by the Authorities are a immediate result of the NOC monitoring and conversation system. The Federal Governments need to screen the increasing popularity of social websites is based on some of the numbers mentioned earlier. Since November nineteen, 2012 there was an estimated six billion persons in the world. (www.census.gov, November 19, 2012) Which means that over 14% with the world’s inhabitants are considered effective users of Facebook and 7% happen to be active daily users. Energetic users will be individuals that include accounts but may not login every day.
The active daily user quantities describe a person logging onto their particular account each day. If an bank account holder’s level of privacy settings aren’t strict, they have the ability to post anything for everyone to see. Let us think returning to Jason to get a moment, his security settings were rigid and he was questioned by local authorities to get his post.
Without the Patriot Act permitting the monitoring of social media sites like Facebook . com, Jason’s post would not had been seen simply by anyone but whom this individual allows to watch his data. The Patriot Act enables Federal Government organizations like NOC to view an individual’s information regardless of the protection settings. With an account holder’s Facebook webpage, they are invited to post “What’s on your mind” upon 1st logging to the site. The individual privacy is usually compromised if the individual truly writes what is on their brain.
If any of the 337 words or keyword phrases are used in a post, email-based, or blog the NOC will know. The NOC will notify the correct local, state, or nationwide authorities to review the potential threat. Jason may have been unfortunate enough to have received a go to from the private sector organisations, but what if he actually posed any threat for the presidential candidate and nothing was done regarding it? The Patriot Act and the Federal Government’s need to monitor technology and social media has aided in removing potential harm to the vast majority of our country. Some might argue that the Patriot violates individual level of privacy and their right to freedom of speech.
This author believes that with no Patriot Act and the protections granted for the Federal Government to monitor the folks of this universe through the networking communities like Facebook . com, there would be far more terrorist actions that have prevailed. The Federal Government’s ability to identify and stay afforded sufficient time to interact with potential dangers through monitoring the online communities like Facebook has made america a safer place to live.
