This computer studies analysis will define the unethical problem of Internet privacy violations in the context of state-sponsored spying and data collection on civilians. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, defines the all-encompassing power of mass surveillances agencies in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (aka. The Five Eyes) that have continually violated privacy rights without due process and Constitutional oversight. Assange also defines the end of the era of Internet privacy for civilian Internet users, which vindicates Assange and other whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden, in the revelations of secret U.S. documents that reveal mass-spying operations by the NSA and other data collecting agencies.
…show more content…
More so, Assange threatened to release these classified email correspondences as part of a slowly unfolding “revelation” about the depth of spying activities brought forth by the American government. However, I tend to approve of Assange’s actions due to his well-tempered dissemination of these emails, which resulted in releasing on a few hundred of them to journalists around the world. More so, Assange actually possesses the higher ethical qualities of a journalist that has unveiled a massive spying program that threatens the right to privacy in the mass media: “What Assange and his colleagues are doing is journalism, there’s no doubt about that…One of the most important tasks of journalism is to uncover and inform people.” In this manner, Julian Assange is justified in exposing these government emails, since he is playing a journalistic role in covering the illegal aspects of state-sponsored surveillance of unsuspecting civilians. Edward Snowden also justifies the fears of the loss of Internet privacy after copying classified NSA and GCHQ documents and distributing them to journalists in the United States, such as Glen Greenwald. In this manner, Snowden sought to reveal the ethical and legal violations of an all-encompassing intelligence gathering agencies that was spying on unwary American civilians that were not involved in terrorism or criminal
More so, Assange threatened to release these classified email correspondences as part of a slowly unfolding “revelation” about the depth of spying activities brought forth by the American government. However, I tend to approve of Assange’s actions due to his well-tempered dissemination of these emails, which resulted in releasing on a few hundred of them to journalists around the world. More so, Assange actually possesses the higher ethical qualities of a journalist that has unveiled a massive spying program that threatens the right to privacy in the mass media: “What Assange and his colleagues are doing is journalism, there’s no doubt about that…One of the most important tasks of journalism is to uncover and inform people.” In this manner, Julian Assange is justified in exposing these government emails, since he is playing a journalistic role in covering the illegal aspects of state-sponsored surveillance of unsuspecting civilians. Edward Snowden also justifies the fears of the loss of Internet privacy after copying classified NSA and GCHQ documents and distributing them to journalists in the United States, such as Glen Greenwald. In this manner, Snowden sought to reveal the ethical and legal violations of an all-encompassing intelligence gathering agencies that was spying on unwary American civilians that were not involved in terrorism or criminal