Is It Ok - NSA and Privacy. Based on the success of Is it ok - Animal Testing? we have a new topic as suggested by -Easy-. As always, post on my wall or shoot me a PM for your own Is It Ok? questions and you could be next! [title2]Is it ok For the NSA to spy on us?[/title2] In June 2013 Edward Snowden released thousands of classified documents to the public via the Wikileaks website before flying out of the US to Russia were he sought asylum. One of the most controversial aspects of this release was the knowledge that the NSA (National Security Agency) and the US Government had been spying, not only on their own citizens but also on the rest of the world. It was also released that not only do they share this information with other intelligence agencies but that other countries have their own divisions of eavesdroppers such as GCHQ (Government Communications HeadQuarters) in the UK. All in the goal of stopping terror. The NSA have admitted that no large-scale terrorist action has been stopped due to the work they do but believe that the threat of them listening reduced the number of attacks. Is it ok? Forums decide. Moody ️
Never OK. It's the same argument the USSR used for spying on their own citizens - it's officially supposed to protect people, but that's not what its true intention is. Spying can easily be used by the government to imprison political opponents or silence journalists. It's not only bad for this reason - in the American context it was also bad because it was illegal. There is a good quote for this from the French Revolution: "He who is not willing to die for liberty never deserved it in the first place".
It's hard to find the perfect balance of security and freedom (privacy). The question is if whether we would give up some freedoms in order to stay safe or give up our safety to keep our privacy. However, is it possible for a government to completely keep its people safe? Not really, but that is my thought
I don't have an issue with it. I'm from the uk and most of us here don't see the issue, we're not doing anything wrong so the government isn't interested in us. I know Americans can't comprehend that though, so I expect much disagreement
Here in America we have freedom and a right to privacy. I know Brits can't comprehend that though, so I expect much disagreement.
You're aware the NSA is American right? Brits are aware of it, you guys make all your 'rights' well known. We also have rights and freedom, probably around the same amount as Americans. (Just a quick FYI, like 90% of American law and constitution originates in English common law)
Personally i dont care, I have nothing to hide and believe it or not, But.....the government really doesnt care about the dirty things you do on the internet :I if it stops one terrorist act its worth it imo
If we could trust them, then I'd support it. Unfortunately, they've been known to abuse this power. But perhaps even more important than the snooping is the cost. We spend way more money snooping on people when the risk of not snooping is much smaller than other risks that we spend very little on. For example, cancer research. How many people die every year from cancer versus terrorism? Why do we spend so much more money fighting terrorism than we do fighting cancer? The answer is pretty clear to me: corruption. Nobody is going to get rich fighting cancer because there's no short term solution. But selling surveillance equipment and services is very easy to sell in the near term. Somebody is getting rich off of the fear of Americans. And that somebody is bank rolling Capitol Hill.
If you arent doing anything bad you have nothing to hide and nothing to worry about, this shouldnt affect anyone but criminals daily lives..
Even if you are doing something bad you apparently don't need to hide anything or worry about it either.
I trust it, I mean what's the worst that's going to happen you get caught doing something illegal? like it's illegal xD you shouldnt be doing it anyway xD
The government used surveillance to target conservative political action groups for audit by the IRS. In other words, you could find yourself being audited because you support Bernie, Trump or Hillary, for example.
Why do you have to be petty? You act like youre entitled to privacy when really you have no right. The government does what it wants wakeup and growup. Edit: Anything you put on the web is public information so im not sure what "privacy" you think you have to begin with
Yeah and that's not right, but I'm pretty sure it's only supposed to be used for illegal stuff. Besides, it's not like exposing someone's opinions is a particularly bad thing. Like the only controversy that can come from it is someone pretending to not support someone actually does. Like if youre willing to say to someone over the phone or tell someone over text you're not going to care if some random stranger hears that you support someone like honestly give it some context and you realise how little the things they do truly matter unless you were doing something wrong. Like support trump
Actually, the worst that can happen is that the entire republican presidential campaign is forced to grind to a halt to respond to invasive audit request, guaranteeing the presidency to the Democratic Party candidate. The government literally used its surveillance power to keep Obama in office. Think about that.