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Week 8: Our right to privacy



I don’t suppose that there is anyone In the developed world that hasn't heard about Snowden. In May 2013 Edward Snowden abandoned his work in NSA, traveled to China and told journalists of The Guardian the story about his work for NSA. 
 
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  The story about the Prism system shocked the world. It turned out that the US government listens to almost every phone call and reads every email send across the world wide web. 

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 Government officials defended themselves telling in every TV station in USA that it is the only way of defending their society against terrorists, that they have to know what they are planning in order to prevent another 11th of September from ever happening again.

The confession of Edward Snowden caused extreme emotion. He was momentarily called a hero by one side - especially by the Anonymous group


 , and a traitor by the other side 
 compared to traitors like the Rosenberg family (they sold many US secrets to the Soviet Union). 

It is bound any doubt that his decision to leave everything he has achieved so far was an act of courage. But I personally can’t look at him as a clearly good person. I find it quite confusing that he presented himself as a fighter for human rights and at the same time he asked for political asylum in countries like China, Russia, Cuba or Venezuela, countries that are known worldwide for breaking the most basic human rights on daily basis. What’s your opinion about Edward Snowden? Is he a hero of your story or do you have mixed feelings like me?

The other issue is the Prism system and the level of government incursion in our privacy.A few weeks ago we heard that the US government is listens to almost everybody’s phone calls (even such an important people like Angela Merkel and even the Pope himself). That means that no one is safe, no matter how high he’s position in the society is. And now the question arises. I think that the losing some part of our privacy is inevitable in our times.  Even more we are freely giving some part of our privacy. We post tons of information on social portals like Facebook etc. But this is a matter for another discussion. 

Back to the original issue. How much of our privacy are we willing to sacrifice  and exchange for our safety? It is beyond doubt that terrorist are a great threat to the western world, to our way of life. In my opinion good intelligence is our best defense against them. We demand from our governments that they protect us, that they will strike them first, or in the worst case prevent them from performing another attack. On the other hand we are outraged when we hear that the governments (not only the US government, everybody listens to everyone these days) read our emails and  listen to our phone calls.

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 Of course all of us will say that the invigilation of the Internet is OK when it is directed against bad guys, but how to distinguish one from another? Where is that thin border between normal government peacekeeping actions and brutal incursion in our private life? What’s your opinion on this? Or maybe you agree that we have to sacrifice a part of our privacy in exchange for security?


Comments

Unknown said…
This is the thing that will be always a question. In my opinion privacy + safety = constant. That means that more we try to secure our lives from all the govement the less controll it have on our live but also on plns of bad people. There was that movie called "minority report" in wich 3 superhumans was able to read all people thoughts. And not a single crime was done in that kind society. I now it's już a movie but in my opinion quite accurate. I think as long as i dont do anything bad i have nothing to be afraid form goverment invigilation.
Sylwia said…
We can't distinguish bad guys from the good one. It is impossible. Everyone may become this bad one at some point of his/her life. That is why we need to sacrifice our privacy to check who is on which side and monitor this bad. It's hard to say where is the border exactly. In my opinion it depends on particular example. However not matter what we do, because of technology which we use, our life is getting more and more invigilate by not only government but also companies. Not only for our protection but mostly for money. To me it is controversial, but as I can't do anything to change it, I just accept it. It is pointless to discuss if I agree for it or not as I do not have any choice. I'm just a small, meaningless part of this machine.
@Konrad Sosnowski <- What that guy said.
Seriously though, I believe I already expressed my opinion on this matter in a previous presentation (I believe it was Armand's). So, if I am not doing anything wrong the government won't take any actions against me. In other words, I won't feel any effect from the fact, that I am being spied on. Most probably I won't even think about it and will be able to live my life how I want to. So, it doesn't change anything for me AND it allows the government to find people that could be a threat to the country, so also myself. Why would any sane person be against all this? I don't think that the government will go around and tell my personal secrets to my friends only to embarrass me, so really I don't mind being watched if that means I don't have to worry about threats.
Unknown said…
Again topic about privacy? I don’t really know why invigilation is such a problem for people. It is necessity to provide security. All of us would like to feel secure so we all need to deal with. I don’t have nothing to hide so I am not worried about my e-mails, phone calls and messages. Edward Snowden? For me he had 5 minutes of fame that’s it. He is definitely not a hero. Technically he betrayed his country and whatever his reasons were he shouldn’t done that.
Tomek Niezgoda said…
I find it hard to believe that other governments don't have their own methods of monitoring poeple, also outside their own countries. It's expected that they behave like they did when PRISM was revealed. They criticized the US government, said there will be consequences and moved on. What I noticed recently was that security companies on other continents are profiting from this situation. Cloud services are being developed that encrypt all the data stored and in multiple, non-disclosed locations. This is a nice idea. Instead of waiting for the world to become secure, we can do it ourselves to some degree.
Yes that’s my point exactly but are we (the society ) willing to accept that. I think that many people still don’t understand this
I know that there’s been a presentation about this but this time I was more curios about your opinion about Snowden and his actions. What do you thing about his motives?
Your opinion about Snowden is very close to mine. Definitely not a hero
I’m pretty sure that our beloved government is invigilating us to( but I’m also afraid that it has lees sophisticated ways of doing that).

As a general opinion I’m glad that everyone here thinks that it’s natural and inevitable that we are constantly under watch and until you don’t do anything wrong there is nothing to worry about.
lukasz-anwajler said…
I'm happy that this information is public and I'm glad Snowden released it. The more transparent government is - the better. I'm libertarian and freedom is something very valuable for me and it shouldn't be limited because of the security.
Natalia said…
You cannot distinguish bad guys from good guys - that is the problem. When you are writting something in the Internet or even when you are using your phone your are treated like terrorist by default - because you can be one. Exchange for security, but whos security? :) The Goverment? The "majority" who vote for the current politics? Who exactly? Because this form of violation of the privacy is for sure protecting someone. If this would be provided for you, you should feel protected by it, right? So do you feel more protected by it or more invigilated?
That’s very honorable but do you really value freedom higher than your life?
Our security as a society, as a group of people. So in some way the security of you and your family. How can you be certain that you won’t be the next accidental victim of a terrorist attack? That you won’t be in wrong place in the wrong time?
Seisyll said…
Well Konrad hit the exact spot. I also said that in previous topic about spying. If you want to be safe you have to give something up. And of course there will be people abusing that. We are people and no one is perfect. It would be great to live in a world like this depicted in "minority report" where there is no crime. But also there, the system was abused.
armandstanczak said…
Well, in my opinion it something very common nowadays. Privacy on the intrnet? Naah never gonna happen. Just take a look at what we already know about NSA CIA etc? I don’t really know why invigilation is such a problem for people but what I noticed recently was that security companies on other continents are profiting from this situation. Everybody goes on cryptofrenzy recently.

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