Nowadays, there might not be any country that does not gather information on its citizen. The main reason for the government to collect data from its citizens is for national security purposes, and after recent events, the participants tended to believe that, it has become a necessity.
Due to the Snowden incident, the surveillance practices of the US government were reviewed in the Report and Recommendations of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies: Liberty and Security in a Changing World commissioned by President Obama in August 2013 and released in December 2013. Although the Liberty and Security Report identified a number of principles which should underpin intelligence collection activities into …show more content…
Part of this has prompted the need to revise the Wiretapping Law. The Legal System Investigation Commission is considering a revision of the Wiretapping Law. The followings are being considered: expanding the ability of authorities to carry out wiretapping; abolishing the need for an employee of a communications company to be present, enabling authorities to intercept communications with a court order using encryption technology and a key; allowing authorities to intercept conversations through “bugging”. The ability to bug a room or other location is a serious concern because all the conversations held in that location will be monitored, and it will become legal to break into a location such as a building and install the bugging devices (Radovic, …show more content…
While covert domestic surveillance can be justified in discrete (and temporary) instances when there is rigorous judicial process, blanket surveillance of all internet activity menaces our intellectual privacy and gives the government too much power to blackmail or discriminate against the subjects of surveillance. Furthermore, the belief in the existence of constant monitoring operates as a chilling effect upon freedom of communication, deterring participation in the democratic process. In a free society, all forms of surveillance must be ultimately accountable to a self-governing public. Statutory law is easily adaptable and can be applied to bind both government and non-government actors. Accordingly, a meaningful legal process of issuing a warrant supported by probable cause needs to be followed before the government can perform the digital equivalent of reading our diaries or worse, making a decision on the basis of casting our horoscopes. It is important to follow the rule of law and have a member of the judiciary provide independent oversight of the use of coercive or invasive powers of data collection. Otherwise, the collection of big data is unhindered and unreviewable which undermines democracy. In addition, a statutory right to prevent misuse of information linked to or generated about a
Due to the Snowden incident, the surveillance practices of the US government were reviewed in the Report and Recommendations of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies: Liberty and Security in a Changing World commissioned by President Obama in August 2013 and released in December 2013. Although the Liberty and Security Report identified a number of principles which should underpin intelligence collection activities into …show more content…
Part of this has prompted the need to revise the Wiretapping Law. The Legal System Investigation Commission is considering a revision of the Wiretapping Law. The followings are being considered: expanding the ability of authorities to carry out wiretapping; abolishing the need for an employee of a communications company to be present, enabling authorities to intercept communications with a court order using encryption technology and a key; allowing authorities to intercept conversations through “bugging”. The ability to bug a room or other location is a serious concern because all the conversations held in that location will be monitored, and it will become legal to break into a location such as a building and install the bugging devices (Radovic, …show more content…
While covert domestic surveillance can be justified in discrete (and temporary) instances when there is rigorous judicial process, blanket surveillance of all internet activity menaces our intellectual privacy and gives the government too much power to blackmail or discriminate against the subjects of surveillance. Furthermore, the belief in the existence of constant monitoring operates as a chilling effect upon freedom of communication, deterring participation in the democratic process. In a free society, all forms of surveillance must be ultimately accountable to a self-governing public. Statutory law is easily adaptable and can be applied to bind both government and non-government actors. Accordingly, a meaningful legal process of issuing a warrant supported by probable cause needs to be followed before the government can perform the digital equivalent of reading our diaries or worse, making a decision on the basis of casting our horoscopes. It is important to follow the rule of law and have a member of the judiciary provide independent oversight of the use of coercive or invasive powers of data collection. Otherwise, the collection of big data is unhindered and unreviewable which undermines democracy. In addition, a statutory right to prevent misuse of information linked to or generated about a