Andrew Coddington - Mass Government Surveillance: Spying on Citizens

Published in 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
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Copyright 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

First Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Coddington, Andrew.

Title: Mass government surveillance / Andrew Coddington.

Description: New York : Cavendish Square Publishing, 2018. | Series: Spying, surveillance, and privacy in the 21st-century | Includes index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781502626721 (library bound) | ISBN 9781502626677 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Espionage--United States--Juvenile literature. | Intelligence service--United States--Juvenile literature. | United States.--National Security Agency--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC JK468.I6 K55 2018 | DDC 363.3251630973--dc23

Editorial Director: David McNamara

Editor: Fletcher Doyle

Copy Editor: Nathan Heidelberger

Associate Art Director: Amy Greenan

Designer: Stephanie Flecha

Production Coordinator: Karol Szymczuk

Photo Research: J8 Media

The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Cover Stocktrek/DigitalVision/Getty Images; p. Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Liberty and Security in America

The Pros: No Harm Done

The Cons: Presumption of Guilt

Ever Faster Computers

Government Surveillance Timeline

Glossary

Further Information

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Governments looking to protect their citizens have increased mass surveillance, but it poses the question: Are these programs worth it?

CHAPTER 1

Liberty and Security in America

O ne of the primary responsibilities of any government is to protect its citizens. Many political philosophers particularly those active during the Enlightenment, a period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe that saw great development in the fields of moral and political philosophyargue that the duty to protect is the most fundamental expectation a citizen has for the government. Enlightenment thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke insisted on the idea of a social contract between each citizen and his or her government. Rather than an actual paper document signed by tens of thousands or millions of individuals, this contract is an implicit understanding that a citizen will curb some of his or her natural liberties, such as the ability to assault someone and steal his or her property, in order to assimilate into a society where other individuals agree to do the same. The society, meanwhile, will agree to protect those who uphold their end of the contract while also prosecuting those who do not.

The social contract is basically an exchange of liberty for personal security, but it does not specify how much liberty an individual is required to sacrifice, nor how much security a government can reasonably guarantee. This problem proves tricky because there are many governments today that have guaranteed their citizens a certain degree of the right to privacy but that are starting to face increased pressure to protect their citizens from crime, warfare, and terrorism .

How far can a government go toward protecting its citizens while also respecting their freedom? How much can invading someones privacy really help in protecting a nation? These questions have only gotten more puzzling as technology has improved over the last few decades. The right to privacy is no longer thought to be limited to peoples homes and belongings. Instead, some argue it now expands to include their digital lives, including their phone, text, and email conversations, as well as documents stored on computers or in the cloud. Meanwhile, the advancement of technology also means that it is that much easier for governments to conduct mass surveillance operationsand also for criminals and terrorists to conceal their plans. This cat-and-mouse game between well-meaning government agencies and wrongdoers often puts ordinary citizens in the cross fire.

Surveillance in Prerevolutionary America

The debate over the reasonable expectation of privacy in America has roots in the American Revolution and even the settlement of the New World. When English colonists first arrived in America, they carried with them the sorts of ideas that helped shape the political evolution of Great Britain, which had at that point only recently undergone a significant democratization in which the monarchy agreed to share some of its power with the common people. In addition, many colonists, such as the Puritans arriving in New England and Catholic immigrants in Maryland, were traveling to America in order to escape religious persecution at the hands of the Anglican elite in England. These groups hoped that America might allow them freedom to practice their religion without government intervention or harassment.

Americans increasingly store personal information and conduct their personal lives over the internet, thanks to connected devices such as smartphones.

When the relationship between Great Britain and its North American colonies started to sour during the eighteenth century, a new facet of American liberty took root. The British had recently fought and won the French and Indian War, in which the British defeated their rivals in North America, the French and their Native American allies. However, this victory came at a great price. In order the defray the cost of the war, as well as to improve security in the North American colonies, Parliament passed two quartering acts. The Quartering Act of 1765 required that the American colonists provide room and board to any British troops who needed it in the event that the soldiers stationed in the colonies outnumbered the space available in military barracks. Although the first Quartering Act stopped short of requiring regular colonists to house soldiers in their own homes, the bill specified that inns, taverns, and the private residences of alcohol merchants, as well as outbuildings on private property, such as barns, could be forced into service as makeshift housing for soldiers with local governments footing the soldiers bills for food, drink, and rent.

Parliament saw the first Quartering Act as a practical way of supporting the colonies first standing army to deter the French. At the same time, Parliament hoped the act would reduce the strain on Britains coffers by displacing some of the cost to the colonial governments, which the British people widely felt did not play a large enough role (or pay enough money) in the defense of their own lands.