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Watch the video above and review the timeline here. Edward Snowden released documents that showed the large scale surveillance waged by the U.S. government. Your task this week will be to examine the Snowden case and the place of surveillance in our American democracy. Answer the prompts below to guide you when writing your post. Share any other perspectives you have on the topic.
62 Comments
Erkhes Bat-erdene
3/22/2015 01:40:55 pm
The various forms of surveillance the NSA uses are recording and tracking phone calls and text messages, tracking e-mails, and recording searches using the internet. The PRISM programs teams with the major internet providers like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Skype among others to track individuals over time and record them. The very obvious abuses are corruption--usnig it to demonize any individual they choose to, use the information to ostracize them, and even blackmail. The uses are to use it as intended--to use it to maintain national security. The problem is that this type of surveillance is Orwellian in nature--it is very easy to abuse and the very concept of power is in relation with corruption with an individual. This level of surveillance that was created and used secretly for some time impacts our democracy negatively. The nature of a democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. But, if the people themselves aren't informed of such atrocities as having their privacy infringed upon, then it really isn't a pure democracy. The government should absolutely not have this information because power leads to corruption. And the ability to record individuals is ginormous, and should not be vested in a government that the people themselves doubt. I believe Snowden did do the right thing by exposing the secrets of the government that are violating the very rights that the government themselves are supposed to protect.
Angela Tam
3/27/2015 04:59:26 pm
I also believe he did the right thing. My fear is that it will be I gain because majority of us don't know how to fight this. But I am thankf for our guest speaker that I formed us of some places to start.
Fode Cheick Toure
3/28/2015 07:43:12 am
Yes Snowden did the right thing when it comes to exposing people's privacy invasion. But at the same time what he did is wrong because releasing sensitive informations about other countries and countries that are friendly to the US had caused mistrust between US and it's allies.
Yvette Castillo
3/23/2015 07:52:24 am
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Stephanie Linford
4/30/2015 08:21:46 pm
i agree that all this is horrible.Snowden was good for exposing all these sercrets to us and let us be informed so we know our privacy is taken away. The fedeal courts passed a secret law to allow them todo all of this and mor. We are under survillance 24/7 it does abuse us and the way we live. the impact of the inew effects our life dearly.and your 100% right therewill never be a true demorcey with the p-eople unnder heavy or any survalance.
Jacob Bandel
3/23/2015 11:26:42 am
The NSA Watches the general public in many ways such as cell phone calls, emails, searches on the internet, and texts made on cellphones. They abuse the information they gather by using said information to do whatever they want to do with it really. They can take anyone since there pretty much spying on everyone most of the time if not all the time. The information they gather is also easy to shut down or hack to which impacts our democracy in a negative way. Another negative way it affects our democracy is they don't need any authorization to wiretap anyone they can just do it which is unjust and unconstitutional. I honestly think they should not be able to store this information anywhere, but i do understand why they do it (or at least i think i do). If they get valuable information to some type of operation which could benefit the american people then thats good but most of the time they don't get important information on anything that big.To the question ‘’Can we have a true democracy with that level of centralized surveillance’’. I honestly dont know, but at my current level of understanding i would say we don't need this infringement on our personal space.
Rayvonne Evans
4/30/2015 06:41:53 pm
I honestly can't see what valuable information they could get from spying on the American public. We aren't terrorist in our own country. If they are using this to keep us safe wouldn't it better serve us if it was used on our enemies? But I forgot the American public is the governments enemies. They need to know what were doing 24/7 in order to better control us. This is the most invasive and blatant disregard for our rights according to the constitution and just as a human in general.
A.J. Roderos
3/23/2015 02:44:36 pm
With the information provided by Edward Snowden, it is clear that the United States government has the power to access information from some of the biggest U.S. tech companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, to spy on foreign diplomats and countries, and to invade privacy as far as phone calls and emails. Because the U.S. government has the power to do these such things, the potential uses and abuses are limitless. Specifically, the NSA can rationalize their actions through the importance of national security because after all, the protection of our country is a priority, especially after 9/11 and the war on terrorism. Most importantly, the NSA can abuse its power by violating laws and regulations, which is proven with two documents revealed by the Washington Post. This level of surveillance impacts our democracy because when the NSA handles domestic matter, every U.S. citizen is involved somehow, whether it is through phone calls or emails. As far as domestic matter, the government should not be allowed to access this kind of information because it invades our privacy. With this kind of centralized surveillance, true democracy is inevitable because after all, citizens do not have a say or the knowledge of what kind of information that the government can access. Needless to say, Snowden has shown a lot of courage for sharing this kind of information because the government has been abusing its power of surveillance, and it is not legally or ethically right for them to do so.
Michael Le
3/25/2015 06:19:37 am
I agree with you when you say the potential abuses are limitless. I believe that it is limitless especially because the NSA has access to cell phone companies. Any NSA employee that has personal financial problems may sell secrets about the people they are monitoring. I believe that if the NSA has this much freedom to monitor people, more problems will arise through corruption and blackmail.
Tory Burleson
3/26/2015 01:37:56 pm
You're right when you say that every U.S. citizen is involved, although most are unaware of that fact. It is a centralized government holding this kind of authority over our heads. Snowden did what he felt was right by letting the people know what is really happening. We all should be paying attention.
Tonivi Truong
3/27/2015 03:45:58 am
Yes, I agree with you that it sure did take alot of courage for Snowden to share this kind of information. NSA has basically shown us that we have even less power than we thought because they will always have the power to spy on us if we want, Take redlining or "the list" for example, if they want to keep an eye on us, they can if they want to. Now the real question is that are we even a democracy state at all? It almost feels like its dictatorship just like the video where it showed bush saying that he should just dictate everything in the society "as a joke.."
Hang Nguyen
4/30/2015 11:32:10 pm
I agreed with you on the domestic matters, and it is not legally to use surveillance against the people. The power and danger when your private information is being controlled by another agency that you have no idea about, someday they put you into suspect, use it to go against you while you are completely an innocent, that is violating the civil rights.
Anqi Sun
3/24/2015 11:51:54 am
By watching this video, we can realize that the NSA has a very high efficient way of watching the secrets of ordinary people. In order to make it easier to analyze and find out potential suspects that may threat the United States. They monitored every part of people’s life such as e-mail, text message of cell phones, the keyword we use when we search on the internet and even the records during the phone call. Once they gather these information, it will be saved in their own system for a period of time, which can help them find out the potential enemy. In other words, any employee who work for NSA and sit in front of the computer will have the authority to monitor people’s secret no matter who you are, but obviously this is a threat to the democracy. It will give the government a legal excuse when they are trying to do some kind of secret actions, which I believe could even mislead the government to prove that “the public is on our side”. As a person, I personally admire for the action Snowden take, for the problem he has exposed is the problem that many people feel so worry about. Maybe the government can monitor our privacy if it is for the greater good such as stopping and find out terrorist, but on the other hand the government should explain what they did and how it is going to protect ourselves. In addition, the government should also create one way to make sure that our own secret will only be protected in the government’s hand, and will not be used in any illegal ways, for these are also the issues that should be guaranteed when we live in a safe community.
Tory Burleson
3/24/2015 02:44:31 pm
All of our forms of communication are being surveilled by phone tapping and tracking what we do and who we communicate with electronically. The potential abuses are extreme because if they can target anyone and use any thing they have said or done in their past against them by taking things out of context and going over their lives with a fine tooth comb. This level of surveillance takes away from our democracy because they are doing this without our permission and without people knowing its happening. I believe that Snowden did the right thing because he felt what he was seeing was wrong and that the public should be able to decide whether or not they are okay with this being done. We cannot have a true democracy if this level of surveillance continues. The government keeps making itself stronger and stronger and the people aren’t doing anything about it. The people seem to be very unaware that this is happening because the NSA hasn’t come out and said it themselves. We should be aware that anything we say on a telephone or do on a computer can be one day held against us and could eventually used to scrutinize us.
Roy Christopher
3/27/2015 04:26:22 pm
You're right that it was a good idea he did what he did. It shows he was for the people. We were being victimized through surveilence without even knowing it truly. Now we have some one who dropped the facts to us and showed us how bad the surviellence system was being abused.
Michael Le
3/25/2015 06:14:23 am
First of all I want to say that I believe that Snowden did the right thing by exposing the truth behind the NSA’s actions. It was a very courageous and selfless thing to do because he sacrificed his wealthy life so that the world can know about how these agencies are violating our rights. Snowden describes how the NSA monitors all of our emails and phone calls, whether we are suspicious or not, through a program called PRISM. This is a complicated topic because I do believe that we need protection from terrorism but we also need to have a true democracy where we have a voice. I believe that it is very wrong that we are being monitored everywhere without reasonable suspicion. It is wrong because as Snowden described, one mistake in our 30’s will let the government use all of the information the NSA has stored against us our whole lives, to make us a criminal. It impacts our democracy because it is contradicting it. We don’t have a say in whether or not we want to get monitored. Also, it is very wrong that large telephone companies like Verizon are offering up our private calls and messages to the NSA for money. The fact that the NSA is paying Verizon for their compliance has “guilty” and “wrong” all over it. I believe that before the NSA decides to monitor someone, that person should meet a certain criteria because if not then there will be abuse. Employees will abuse their power for personal gain.
Nafi watson
3/25/2015 09:48:40 am
• Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Huimin Huang
3/27/2015 03:46:53 pm
I agree with you, the way they watch everyone is not respecting them. we have our rights to keep our personal privacy to our own. and this is not necessary to do so. if the NAS find out that someone may be doing something wrong, they can search information on the person that are really doing something that can harm the country. and not to surveillance everyone like that. not everyone does wrong things.
jorge ferrer
3/25/2015 10:04:56 am
Snowden is a whistle blower who is someone who does surveillance on society. The reason they do this is to collect intelligence from everywhere, they also collect important information in case anybody wants to go against the U.S. Attaining this job gives you the opportunity to see everything the world does or speaks about. the abuses of having this job is that you as a worker are threaten if you speak the truths you see to anyone. As for the people every time they record us or hear us speaking of something they will save our every move and if one day we become a threat to the U.S that information they hold of us can be used against us. Surveillance impacts our democracy by hiding secretes that the people need to know. the only reason why the government keeps these secrets to themselves is because if one day something goes wrong, they can use certain information to help for us to be on their side. they are basically using us without knowing playing with our heads. i understand that the government needs to keep the U.S safe from terrorist attacks which is why we are being watched, but why do "us" people from the U.S need to pay with the price of also watching us. that is not fair i like my privacy even if im not doing anything wrong
nafi watson
3/26/2015 03:26:42 am
I agree with you. i would them to respect our privacy, i would how many people that we might know or be around every day are working for NSA or any other companies that do this who are scared to come clean about what is going on with all of these surveillance around us.
Bolortsetseg Jargalsaikhan
3/26/2015 09:58:57 am
That's true that anyone is entitled to have their privacy where they can be themselves and express themselves without government judging every single word you chose to use. One bad day when you express yourself feeling anger toward someone or something could get you to convicted of terrorist, or even having issues. The government should respect their citizens' privacy and not try to make everyone vigilantes. like you mentioned, there are certainly many who are doing this job as Snowden might be feeling of coming out as he did but just can't. That's sad that they can't feel safe enough coming out and tell government "No, that's not right".
Qin Chen
4/3/2015 04:34:57 pm
I agree with you. Like what you said, it is not fair to be monitored if we do not do everything wrong. Even if what the Government does is try to protect, they across the line. I believe there are many ways to protect us, however, government choose the way that is easiest and has most benefit.
Ri'Chara Glenn
3/25/2015 10:58:06 am
The NSA targets different forms of communication and collects, analyzes, and filters them in the system. An analyst can at any time target a person and the communication is picked up depending on the sensor network. Snowden also explained that he had the ability to wiretap anyone and report back to the federal judge. According to the film, the purposes of surveillance are somehow rooted in power. The government wants to have the power to detect suspicions and immediately naturalized the situation based on evidences they received from their surveillance records. Even though it is used for protecting our country and gaining bits of power over other countries. However, we live in a democratic country and for that reason it is a violation to all areas of our democratic policies. We as people deserve the rights to have a say so in every situation because that is democracy. What the governments do in secret, does affects us all. We should be a country that works hand in hand with each other not against and not have upscale governors choose our paths for us. I don’t have a problem with surveillance minoring our communication because it is used to protect us from harm but then again they should’ve asked for our permission. Put together a ballot or allow us to vote on it. When Snowden disclosed classified data, he didn’t do anything wrong. In fact he cleared the air and gave us more clarity of how much of a snake our government is. We can have a true democracy because we have been living this way for years and nothing bad happened. The secret is finally out but it still doesn't really alter our ways of living. If we removed this intent then our country will weaken because we’ve lose control of things and can become fragile to other countries. I'd say keep the surveillance operations cycling but only use it for a significant purpose.
Angela Tam
3/25/2015 03:56:00 pm
The various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed were wire taping, email tracking, search tracking, and text message. Snowden basically said that those with access in the NSA could chose anyone to track and wire tap without having a just cause. This impacts our democracy because it threatens and is an invasion of our privacy. This gives the government the opportunity to take anything we say or do on “record” and turn it on you. The government shouldn’t because there should be no reason to have to surveillance ordinary individuals without suspicion or just cause. I believe Snowden did the right thing because, like he said, he had a good life. Most of his peers were so desensitized that they saw this all as no big deal. He felt that the people need to know to just what extend their privacy was being breeched and just how much power the government has to invade our lives. Like Snowden said, this is the pathway to “turn-key tyranny”. I think he was concerned for our country for a reason and it’s because we can’t have a true democracy when there are people who have far too much power over others. People will be too scared to speak against the government in fear to rock the boat or to be put under suspicion, which means we will be further oppressed. Centralized surveillance will be fear invoking and will only serve as a tool for the government to use to gain leverage on the people of America.
jorge ferrer
3/26/2015 05:58:13 am
i agree with you our privacy should not be exposed, even if we are not doing anything wrong we deserve some privacy to ourselves. i still believe its a good choice to observe to who want to attack the U.S or any other terrorist but we as a nation should not pay for those consequences. what i really hated from watching this video is the things that are record from us, i hate the fact that those videos or chats can be used against us for any bad reason in the future. we are been used without knowing it feels like a brain washed not cool at all, each day i grow up hating the government more and more.
Maurice Ainsworth
3/25/2015 04:47:23 pm
Snowden exposed that a major government entity was illegally gathering information via cellular technology; calls and sms - text messaging, as well as email transmissions.I believe this surveillance is designed to control and instill fear American society, as well as global society as a whole. On one hand, this type of surveillance is anti democratic; the majority of our societies members would not consider intrusion necessary. However, when you look closely at our government, you notice that democracy is for the ruling class, and all others are slaves. Being that nothing will happen to this country without our governments approval, it is unnecessary for them to need to collect this type of information. I imagine that there would be situations that intrusion may be necessary, however, those circumstances seem to be few and far inbetween. I believe that Mr. Snowden is part of the plan to acclimate U.S citizens to the world as it is becoming; one that is eliminating our civil liberties and human rights. You know, New World Orderish if you will. If we look at the big picture, we understand that democracy is for our ruling class. All of the technological advances that we cherish, are being used against us. They are telling those in power who we are, and we do not realize that we are. They are used to encourage us to shop, select a mate, and think based on the limits they come with. we are confining ourselves to gadgetry, and losing our connection to humanity, We haven't had a true democracy in this country from my perspective, and i don't see it happening now.
nafi watson
3/26/2015 03:16:04 am
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Raynard Anderson
3/26/2015 04:00:24 pm
i completely agree with you are government solves their problems with leaks by not revising policies and actually fixing the problem but by just not getting caught again by giving the employees less freedom and having someone look closer over the employees with a magnifier glass to them form growing a conscious under the threat of either job loss or loss of your or your families life.
Bolortsetseg Jargalsaikhan
3/26/2015 09:50:39 am
1.Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Harin Yoon
3/26/2015 07:56:23 pm
Totally agree that Snowden did the right thing. I think we have all the right to know what the government is using our information and our daily communications for. The true democracy cannot be in effect if the government does not stop from doing so.
Shameim lowther
4/29/2015 06:12:53 am
getting intelligence whereve it can by any means necessary. It was used for oversears but now it's used domestically. collected, filtered, saved….It targets anyone anythere based on the range and authorities to wire tap anyone-individual, judge, president etc….
liang zhang
3/27/2015 12:52:53 pm
I totally agree with what you said. whatever NSA did totally against of our freedom and our expression. If people say anything bad about government or did something againest government, I believe NSA may watch him/ her too . I dont like NSA at all, I think NSA should stop doing it. That is just not right.
Lin Chen
4/3/2015 01:57:39 pm
I agree with your point. The democracy is government by the people, but not the government controlling the people. If the government do so this is not democracy. People don't have their own privacy, and the government can target someone as a terrorist. And these things can not happen in the democracy.
Raynard Anderson
3/26/2015 03:55:18 pm
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Harin Yoon
3/26/2015 07:54:11 pm
The forms of surveillence that he exposed were wiretapping into emails, phone calls, travel histories, and texts. The potential abuse might be violating the right of privacy and the informations that they gathered could be used for wrong use or even be misunderstood. The democracy strongly stands on not violating the privacy and this kind of act from the government does not follow the base of the idea that this country was built on. I think the government should have limits on how much information and records they can extract from it. I think it could be really useful for being protected from future terrorist attacks and so forth but I do not think they should have the right to wiretap on everyones communications and histories. I think Snowden did the right thing because I think the public have the right to be exposed to what the government is doing just like how the government is forcefully exposing our privacy to them. I think the meaning of the true democracy is badgered by this actions from the government. This action does not imply to democratic right for citizens' privacy so I do not think the true democracy will be in effect for long if the government decides to keep on doing this.
Richara Glenn
3/27/2015 12:36:26 pm
I agree to that part where you said that the government should set limitations on how much information is being absorbed through the system. I do agree that it should be used for potential foreign attacks but we also have internal issues that exist too that might require some protecting. There could be someone working from the inside that we don't know about so surveillance is the most effiecent way to prevent bad things from happening.
Tonivi Truong
3/27/2015 03:35:04 am
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Yvette Castillo
3/27/2015 09:07:21 am
I agree with what you say about the government having all the power wether is using surveillance and dismissing the laws treating the society unfairly with our secureness and human rights. I also believe that this is something that should be reported to the public so that we are all aware of what the government is doing specially if it has to be with surveillance and this is huge because our credit accounts are being watched, our privacy and basically they get to know everything about you and what you do. Surveillance is something that should be abolish unless it is done for a good reason that only targets the right people, not just anybody that is innocent of the situation.
liang zhang
3/27/2015 12:42:44 pm
NSA has the power to watch everyone is this world. they can recording our phone calls, emails, and messages in their system for a period of time. I think the potential of the surveillance is they do can get alot of imformation about evreyone they are targeting. they might catch the spys from other country, but if they overuse it, it will cause people has no private and It also puts innocent people at risk to have problems with the government. For me, I think the government should not have this information, because most of the informations are people's privacy. The govenment has no rights to recording our phones calls, emails, etc... Not for our country, not for other counties too. I believe Edward Snowden did the right thing. If he is not telling anying one what NSA did, no one will know all these thing are happening right now, and NSA will keep doing it longer and longer. that is just make me so disappointed of America. We dont have the true democracy with that level of centralized surveillance, whatever we do, we already get watched from NSA(maybe).. we say we have freedom, but do we really have ???? I feel like everyone is in a big prison.
Dongho Kim
3/27/2015 04:59:00 pm
I believe NSA has no rights to do this sort of things. Who gave them the right and power to monitor everyone? Edward Snowden definitely did the right thing. Just like you said, no one would of known these things were happening if he did not tell the world. I agree with you that it feels like everyone is in a big prison. This cannot happen in democracy.
Shameim Lowther
4/8/2015 09:38:46 am
The freedom to create, build, and shape your own destiny by playing by the rules and breaking them. The freedom to make choices in what you can control. But the true freedom is not having your own mind. we have everything in America to keep us blind. Sex, drugs, education, poverty, work, housing, food, holidays, music, entertainment keeping us so busy we have no time to look outside of our minds to even consider whats going on in the world.
Huimin Huang
3/27/2015 03:31:08 pm
The various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed is that the american surveillance state was originally focus narrowly tailored as foreign intelligence gathered overseas and now happening domestically. the NAS targets the communications of everyone that associate with a foreign government or people that they suspected terrorism, they collects them in NAS's system, analyzes the communications that they collect and store them for a periods of time. the communications been picked up will depends on the range of the sensor networks and the authorities that the analyst empowered with. which means NAS can surveil on anyone from anywhere at anytime if they want.
Roy Christopher
3/27/2015 04:23:10 pm
They serve the national interest.
Dongho Kim
3/27/2015 04:55:01 pm
Snowden wanted to expose the truth of how NSA has been monitoring people’s private phones and track phone calls and text messages. This sounds like we live in a socialist country. Our government do this through big corporates people are consuming from. They argue that it is to protect national securities and protect the citizens from all different types of threats, but I say it is unconstitutional and violates the 1st amendment. Our government doing this means that this country is not a democracy. NSA monitoring our personal messages means that we do not have a freedom of speech and press. They should really put a stop to this because I believe there can be other way to protect our national security. Protecting national security is important, but if it means to take people’s freedom away, it should be stopped. I believe Snowden did the right thing because everyone has the right to find out that their private life is being monitored. I just feel very disturbed and uncomfortable to imagine someone who has no connection to me is monitoring my private life. We cannot have a true democracy with this level of surveillance because again, there is no freedom. We call United States a land of the free and home of the brave but this cannot be true if NSA continues to do monitor people.
Shameim Lowther
4/8/2015 09:34:07 am
I dont understand why he has to flee to asia to conduct the interview. Who's subsidizing him. Whos keeping him safe? Why say something now-and what true benifit does he get from exposure?
Erik Hoffmann
3/30/2015 10:25:41 am
The forms of surveillance exposed by Snowden include wiretapping, recording of phone calls and text messages,and tracking emails and internet searches. The NSA is supposed to use the info for national security purposes, but has the potential to be abused. The government can use this information to defame and ostracize individuals they label as a threat, and can ultimately use it to invade the utmost reaches of any individuals privacy if they choose to. This level of surveillance goes against almost every right that this country was originally founded on, is unconstitutional, and is undemocratic because the public has no say in it. There may be the advantage of using the information to spy on terrorists, but ultimately comes at the cost of our privacy and freedom. If giving up freedom for comfort is okay, then yes, they should have this information. Snowden did the right thing because he let the world know of the injustice being done to us at the cost of his own freedom, and gave up his own comfortable living for the sake of the rest of the world to know. We can never have a true democracy if there is always a level of distrust from our government, which goes against the statement "by the people, for the people".
Lin Chen
4/1/2015 03:04:17 pm
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Qin Chen
4/1/2015 04:14:59 pm
Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
Emerson Lovato
4/1/2015 05:27:06 pm
Some of the various forms of surveillance that Edward Snowden exposed were recording of cell phone calls and text messages, tracking emails and internet searches, and wiretapping. There are potential uses and abuses of surveillance for example, by recording our cell phone calls and text messages they are violating our right to have freedom of speech. They cannot violate this right because this is one of the things that people love about America so much. I understand it's a good way to track down criminals but the freedom of your citizens should be more important . This level of surveillance has a big impact on democracy because in a democracy, citizens have the right to express themselves without having to worry about it's government watching over every little thing being said. It goes against American values because in America people have freedom. If the government tracks all types of conversations than how can the citizens feel safe and how can they trust their government. The government should not have this information because it violates our rights, we want to feel safe and be able to express ourselves without having to worry about going to jail for something we said that our government didn't want to hear. I think Edward Snowden did the right because he realized that he was damaging other people. He knew things that nobody else knew about so all those bad things haunted him and the only way to feel like a human being again was to do what was best for all people and not for himself. We cannot have a true democracy when almost every citizen in the country is being watched at all times. We should be able to communicate with others freely because at the end of the day citizens are not doing anything wrong.
Fode Cheick Toure
4/6/2015 04:53:03 pm
The Government used companies such as: AT&T, yahoo, Skype, Google, Facebook, Apple,Twitter, T-Mobile, Verizon, sprint etc... To access our sensitive informations. These Internet companies were supposed to safeguard our personal informations, but they happened to allow the government to invade our privacy, by spying on us, traking us and hacking into our computer to collect anything they want to from it.
Shameim Lowther
4/8/2015 09:28:15 am
Snowden stated that the forms of surveillance were abused by the power differential that the government holds. It violates our human rights to privacy. He also states that he felt the need to expose this to all people by showing us that we are all targets and suspects when it relates to terrorism. Snowdens concern was that through suspicion anyone could lose their freedom or life. Living in a government of democracy surveillances impedes on our security, and I believe that this causes harm to innocent people. I think that snowden did the right thing by telling us but to what benefit? What can we do as American citizens to stop it? What can we do as everyday individuals to secure our freedom, and human right?
LENA COLETTO
4/9/2015 10:51:30 am
The NSA is surveilling all of us through phone calls, text messages, emails, and internet. This is quite a terrifying thought, that a government can grant themselves the power to invade the personal privacy of whoever they want. Right now they are just quietly gathering information on us, sitting on it, waiting to use it however they want. They are learning about the American people, I'm sure using it for consumer/ capitalism purposes, but what's most disturbing is the fact that they have the ability to do whatever they want with their gathered information. They can use it against us at any time they want to strike. So while we are living completely transparent lives to our government, they are living in total stealth and secrecy. They know everything about us and we know nothing about them. This is the unfair and dangerous advantage. The government has granted themselves a ridiculous amount of power, and as they are gaining power, we the people begin to lose our rights. Snowden absolutely did the right thing, if more people does what he did then we could change it. Whistleblowers are necessary, they shed light on dark and evil things. If know one stands up and says "this is wrong" then nothing will be changed.
Guadalupe Hernandez
4/30/2015 06:10:37 am
I completely agree with your thought. The government is functioning in a completely unfair way. They project the image of protecting its citizens, and equal rights, but they are the ones that are hurting us. They have way to much of an upper hand on us. They brainwash us with media, and threats this is not right, but we as citizens need to look past this, and start fighting.
Guadalupe Hernandez
4/9/2015 04:32:48 pm
Various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed are wiretapping anyone, listing into and recording phone calls, emails, recording search histories for the internet etc. The current usage for these surveillances are to protect the country from external and internal threats for example terrorism. The abuses that come with these surveillances are if the government feels your are a potential "threat," and send you to federal court, they can pull up anything from the past that could ultimately hurting your trial and painting you as the enemy or guilty when perhaps it is false. This gives them the upper hand to the government. It gives them the upper most powerful position over everyone. This level of surveillance hurts our democracy. We supposedly live in a country where we all vote for what we believe is right, but the government limits us, threatens us, and invades its own peoples privacy to "protect" our country. When in reality they do it to better control it in the way that is most beneficial for them. I do not believe the government should have this type of information. We as citizens have the right to privacy. We should not face the potential threat of the government hurting us over the things we do or say in privacy. Yes terrorism is an awful and dangerous thing, but this should be addressed differently then having such heavy surveillance on its citizens. We can not have a true democracy with this type of democracy. First, we need the truth! Not just what the government wants released but all the truth. Secondly, we need freedom to change our government and not get penalized for our opinions and result in being marked as a terrorist or a "threat" simply because we have strong different opinions then those of the government and are working towards change.
Maurice Ainsworth
4/12/2015 08:35:54 am
Thank you. I completely agree, and would appreciate seeing the citizens of this country coming together, and standing up to our government. The reason they can get away with what they do, is because we have been divided as citizens. We have also been deceived to such an extent, that we cannot realize what the truth is. The only terrorist here is our government. Who is to protect us from them.
Rayvonne Evans
4/30/2015 06:33:08 pm
The NSA and CIA track our phone calls, text messages, e-mails, and internet searches. The PRISM program partners with major internet providers such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Apple to track what were doing on the web. I feel like this is a complete abuse of power. I do not feel like anyone has the right track my life. Its no ones business who I talk to and what we talk about. I do understand how it can be useful but monitoring the American public isn't taking precautions against terrorist its being used as a form of control. Yes it may intercept a call from a terrorist but if someone was planning on terrorizing America they mostly like wont be on American soil when they discuss it. Them being able to pretty much listen into our everyday lives is counterproductive to our "democracy". Tracking someone's every move is what you do for your live stock. You need to know where they are and what they're doing every second of the day. No one should have this information. Everyone's personal life should be just that, personal. I think Snowden did the right thing by telling on them so that now at least we know what they're doing and were not in the dark about what the government does to us without our consent. We never had a true democracy so even with the government spying on us it doesn't change our illusion of democracy. However if we did have a true democracy this would be a major violation of that. The public would have never agreed to be spied on.
stephanie linford
4/30/2015 08:34:07 pm
In this video Edward Snowden becomes a whiste blower and he explains the things he found out were actually abusive to the public. The more he witnessed NSA that many things they did were not right and were starting to become a norm. The NSA also gathers messages together non-stop,. The NSA can target anybody. Edward said sitting at his desk could tap in whatever phone he could right then & there.
Stephanie Linford
4/30/2015 08:42:03 pm
To get him at any time but he is determined to let the people know what's going on. I read about a secret federal bill that was passed too be able to Tap into the publics everything, at any time. Most phone companies are working with the Goverment spying in people without permission. Like Edward said even if you don't do anything wrong at all your still going to be right under the camera being watched. Verizon sold itself to try and work with the Goverment hand in hand.
Hang Nguyen
4/30/2015 11:25:39 pm
First thing to say, I really admire Edward Snowden for revealing NSA secrets_the most powerful and intelligent agency_ openly to public. It has to take a lot of courages and strength to leave everything behind and stand up against that big system, with the fear and risks for the rest of his life.
steven gissentanner
5/1/2015 09:58:22 am
As I watch the video it made me think back to the book called Panopticism by Michel Foucault. In this book he compares today's surveillance to the surveillance of prison. He said that the surveillance is built on the way prisons watch their inmates in the society we are being watched without even knowing it. Our phones can be tapped text messages and emails can be red They could even tap your web cams if they wanted too. The abuse about the surveillance is that people are going through other peoples personal life without their connect. It impacts our personal lives by gaining access to things people shouldn't know. I believe that he did the right thing my providing the information for the people of the society.
Zane Samuel
5/3/2015 06:21:59 am
The NSA watches everything and has eyes on everything we do from our phone calls, text messages, emails, social networks and even what we search on online search engines. Their level of surveillance is next level as the PRISM programs teams with the major internet providers and social networking companies. With the information they get they can blackmail or demonize any individual they choose, putting them in one of the most powerful positions in the world. They claim that they use these tactics for national security, however their way of going about it and the access they are given can easily be abused and create corruption which is nonetheless most likely already occurring. The nature of a democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. However, if the people themselves aren't informed of such atrocities as having their privacy taken away, then it really isn't a true democracy. This power is something that should not be allowed to be obtained by the government because power and information on this level leads to corruption. I believe Snowden did do the right thing by exposing the secrets of the government that are violating the very rights that the government themselves are supposed to protect.
Adham Awa
5/5/2015 04:43:14 am
The forms of surveillance the NSA uses are recording and tracking phone calls and text messages, tracking e-mails, and recording searches using the internet while the PRISM programs team with the major providers like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Skype among others to track individuals over time and record them. Uses and abuses of these surveillance types could include tracking people for various reasons, sitting on private conversations, listening to phone calls civilians make in private, This surveillance impacts our democracy in almost every way because what power do the people have when all their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs can be tracked and/or manipulated by our own government? The government should not have this transformative power because it really advances their capabilities beyond what most people see. It allows them inside our heads, and inside our minds. I believe he absolutely did the right thing to give the general public the option to see and choose for themselves which route America may take in terms to spying or surveillance on our own people. No true democracy can really exist while all are being watched and we must fight to keep our privacy from government. Leave a Reply. |
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