assignment 16 Zachary Langdon for your protection

This is creepy, no? (referring to image). We don’t typically like people filming us, especially right before we go to sleep. So why is it ok when the government does it. We gave them that power. As terrorism became more present in our lives, we handed the government more and more of our rights. To watch us, listen to us, at any time. To read all of our texts and emails. See our photos and documents. Know who we called and where we are and have been. According to propublica. That was the terrorist victory of the war on terror, that our 4^th amendment right to privacy is lying on its deathbed. We have given the institution most able to ruin our lives the most power to do so.

We gave them these powers for the purpose of security. All of those acts are justified under the label of antiterrorism. Their purpose seems pretty overt, combat terrorism. Except that’s just the hook that reels in public support, these programs neither prevent terrorism nor keep you safe. The Intercept and Propublica have both reported there to be no evidence these programs ever stopped a major terrorist attack. The president and countless other politicians have touted the NSA thwarted 54 terrorist attacks. Except that only 13 of those were in the US, and “attacks” includes aspirational planning, traveling to the middle east, or sending money to terrorists. There has been no specific evidence given that unconstitutional surveillance has stopped a major attack. The Johnston achieve reports terrorism killed 64 people this year, 14 without the Orlando shooting. According to the CDC smoking killed 480,000. If the government wanted to save lives, they would implement plain cigarette packaging laws. But instead they focus billions on surveillance, why?

Because Surveillance allows illegal enforcement of the law and censorship that we only support out of the fear of terrorism. Reuters reports after the Paris attacks, the French government expanded their law enforcement armory. They then used these antiterrorism laws to place climate changed activists under house arrest for planning to protest at the Paris climate talks. The government claimed the public disturbance would distract the police from fighting against terrorism. Terrorism was used as an excuse to remove the freedom of speech. Middle schooler Vito Laptina was interrogated by the Secret Service because he posted about Obama after Bin Laden’s death, as shown in the documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply. An investigation by the EFF found that the sneak and peek warrants meant to allow police to spy on terrorists without notifying them were used 47 times in the year following 9/11. They were used 11 thousand times in 2013. Only 51 of those were used for terrorism, while 9000 were used in narcotics cases, a crime mentioned nowhere in section 213 of the patriot act which allows these warrants. If we grant the government tools, they will use them, not just for their intended purpose.

And the tool box isn’t getting smaller. Britain just passed the largest expansion of a democratic surveillance apparatus in history as reported by the Verge. The investigatory powers bill forces tech companies to record citizen’s browsing history to be searched by a hoard of government agencies, unlock your phone for search by the police, and wield thematic warrants to bulk hack and survey a whole town, class, or ethnicity. The Intercept reports, Congress just passed an extension to FBI hacking powers. It’s time to fortify, because privacy’s condition is not improving.

Thankfully, there has never been an invasion of rights so easy to defend against. Just update your software, enable device encryption, use encrypted messaging services like iMessage, WhatsApp, or Signal, get the https everywhere extension. This is 1 tap security, install it and your safe. If you want to go further, and you should, try to keep as much stored on your devices as possible. The aforementioned documentary explains, any data in the cloud, emails, photos, backups, social media, chat services, location data, can be legally and secretly accessed by the NSA through the third-party doctrine. If its in the cloud, you’ve given up your right to it. Your camera and microphone on your laptop and phone can be turned on at any moment. The screens literally watch you back, so don’t leave them lying around. Just remember this, go to the EFF, they’re the ACLU of the internet, and they have all this information, they have a whole guide to keeping your data private.

We were warned about this. In 1973, the supreme court case US v. US District Court unanimously ruled in that the government must comply with the 4th amendment when spying domestically and obtain a warrant, a ruling the has been violated countless times recently(EFF NSA timeline). The opinion of the court reads ,

The price of lawful public dissent must not be a dread of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation. For private dissent, no less than open public discourse, is essential to our free society.

This is a major issue of and beyond our time. The leaders we elect, the policies they make, the software we give our information to, determines how we and future humans live in our digital society. Technology is becoming more intimate with the advent of glasses with cameras and watches with GPS. If we choose not to act, to ignore the problem, all privacy will be gone. This is a right we must defend, to quote Edward Snowden (AlJazeera) “Rights are not just individual, they’re collective … what may not have value to you today, may have value to an entire population, an entire people, or an entire way of life tomorrow, and if you don’t stand up for it, then who will.” I know you all have something you care about, and privacy is what allows you too. Wanting privacy is not different than wanting to care about what ever you want. Without privacy, you are under complete legal and social scrutiny. If we don’t defend our rights, they become meaningless formalities regimes can trample. Our society is based on the abilities of the citizens to control their government, but when we give the government these tools and not care how they use them, the government end up controlling us.

Works Cited

"Ahead of Climate Summit, French Use Emergency Laws to Put Activists under House Arrest." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 28 Nov. 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.

"Fast Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 05 Dec. 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016.

Johnston, William Robert. "Terrorist Attacks and Related Incidents in the United States." Terrorist Attacks and Related Incidents in the United States. N.p., 30 Nov. 2016. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

Kurzgesagt. "Safe and Sorry – Terrorism & Mass Surveillance." YouTube. Alphabet, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 June 2016.

McLaughlin, Jenna. "Expanded Federal Hacking Authority Goes Into Effect Despite Last Minute Efforts in Senate." The Intercept. N.p., 01 Dec. 2016. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

"Peekaboo, I See You: Government Authority Intended for Terrorism Is Used for Other Purposes." Electronic Frontier Foundation. N.p., 13 July 2016. Web. 8 Dec. 2016.

Robertson, Adi. "Unprecedented Black Budget Leak Reveals the Scope of $52 Billion US Spy Complex." The Verge. Vox Media, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Theodoric Meyer ProPublica, June 27, 2014, 9:29 A.m. "No Warrant, No Problem: How the Government Can Get Your Digital Data." ProPublica. N.p., 30 June 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

"Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying." Electronic Frontier Foundation, 02 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

"UpFront - Headliner: Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg." YouTube. AlJazeera, 05 Sept. 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2016.

Watch Terms and Conditions May Apply. Dir. Cullen Hoback. Perf. Cullen Hoback and Brian Lawler. Phase 4 Films, 2013. Amazon Instant Video. Web. 9 June 2016.