Essay On Total Information Awareness

On September 11, 2001, members of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, launched a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks against targets inside the United States. Terrorism, which is the deliberate act of using terror in order to advance one’s political agenda, is one of the most well-known threats to the American way of life. The American government, has several agencies which specialize in countering acts of terrorism inside the United States, such as the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Despite their efforts, the United States government failed to protect its citizens from the damages caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After which, the US government unjustly increased its use of domestic surveillance in the name of combatting terrorism by failing to use warrants to track American citizens, failing to combat …show more content…
Firstly, the United States is developing data-mining and profiling technologies to be used on American citizens. 4 The government increasing its surveillance capabilities means that it will be even easier for the government to spy on U.S. and non-U.S. citizens. Second, Total Information Awareness seeks to create a “virtual, centralized, grand database.” 5 The United States goal is to track all of the world’s citizens in order to prevent crimes, but in doing so commits the crime of stealing one’s right to privacy. The government can use this information to determine things like your access to government buildings. 6 The future of surveillance in the US, is a future in which citizens aren’t allowed the same freedoms that they have grown up with. Being an American citizen, means being entitled to certain rights such as a right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure, by allowing the government to expand its surveillance capabilities to all American citizens, those same citizens lose some of their