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Threats of Surveillance on Private Citizens 22 Threats of Surveillance on Private Citizens: Government and Privacy issues This paper investigates negative impact of surveillance on citizens by public, private and government sector. Further I explore possible solution to this problem. Surveillance is ubiquitous and so are its negative effects. As outlined by Snowden, an IT analyst for NSA who exposed illegal activities of US government. NSA took advantage of wiretapping and video surveillance technology to keep an eye on their private citizens without their consent and knowledge. Though he brought out the true intentions of the government in front of public but was rewarded as being a traitor. Revelations made by Snowden are not singular in nature. Being surrounded by technology, we all are at risk of this kind of surveillance. So, to start with, below I explore the surveillance technologies as used by public sector. Surveillance in Public Sector Increased utilization and dependency on internet are detrimental for public sector as it is exposing this sector into serious risks. Research conduced by Neil Robinson on public policy at RAND Europe indicates potential risks and threats of surveillance and cyberspace which can be accessed by hackers. Statistics by Europe’s Digital Agenda website shows that only 12% of European consumer feel safe in doing online transactions which is result of fear of surveillance and loss of information. Public Sector expose private citizens privacy and information when being hacked which can include their personal information to health information (Andreasson, 2012). Businesses are focused on making themselves rich and profitable by neglecting privacy and concerns of citizens. Social media businesses focus on personal data surveillance of people with products designed in such a way to keep an eye on us to offer their services and push our decisions. Attention grabbing algorithms used by these platforms aim to create confusion, prejudice, ignorance, and chaos in people by undermining accountability and facilitate manipulations. It creates issues with individuals’ freedom of speech and expression as they do not prefer to showcase their feelings as they get influenced by these behavior patterns. Social media is getting that much powerful which raises alarming question about well-being of people. Data surveillance is burgeoning issue which is impacting domestic privacy of citizens. There are various acts at play which include physical, security, and economic risks. Public sectors gather all information we reveal as it is set of another data bite to be mined, measured, sorted, and sold by them. Mostly data surveillance is kept secret as it can raise questions in people’s mind, and they can refuse to use their data. These revelations showcases that this modern stage of human history is alarming because concerned are being raised about disinformation, privacy breaches, and hate speeches saturate the society. Cyber criminals are intelligent enough to hack data from public sectors which can lot of damage to huge databases including information of private citizens from their names to emails. Large number of people make use of passwords which are easily predictable. Acknowledgement to former well-known breaches most of people’s passwords are available on dark web. Amazon endured extensive data breach in 2018 which led to release of customer’s names and email addresses on their website (Taschner, 2021). Threats present by constant surveillance and distribution of information is unreasonable takeover privacy which lead to serious consequences for citizens as they do not feel fully protected. These practices do not end here, public sector take advantage of personal data analytics which build vertical representation of individuals which can take control over our identifies as data doubles are introduced. They discriminate people by using big data algorithms. These give them power to differentiate and separate people of society into different groups by identifying patterns of similarities and differences in people. Companies engage in illegal form of discrimination that includes predatory lending, differentiated prices by retailing companies and racial profiling of people. It is horrific and eye-opening experience as companies are predicting our future actions and behaviors based on collection of present-day data doubles. Risks are not just associated to private citizens, therefore public sector is exposed to dataveillance and big data operations which have capacity of alarming consequences (Jooste, 2021). Racial Profiling is being conducted by police agencies to minimize crime, whereas, it is discriminating people on basis of their race, ethnicity, religion. There is increase in racial profiling of minority drivers as permission is being granted to police officers to engage in pretextual traffic stops. Increased frequency of racial profiling raises a concern for non-white drivers as they are mainly targeted. Through research it is evident that racial profiling during day light hours is at increase as police officers can ascertain race of nearby drivers clearly. Black and Hispanic drivers are mostly victims of this phenomenon. Racial profiling by police agencies shows troubling patterns across country. It creates disparity between people on basis of their appearance and how they are being treated. And it is difficult for victims of racial profiling to seek relief as they must go through long legal procedures (Rushin, 2021). Racial profiling is offensive because profiling methods used by police not only condemn profiled person, but whole profiled group is also condemned. It purposes that behavior of suspect is not free and is strongly connected with issue of freedom (Horrace, 2016). Citizens express their concerns and fear about abuse of their information and power. Most of the concerns shown by people are related to misuse of information being gathered by surveillance technologies. It produces fear regarding function creep and abuse of power by security authorities who conduct these technologies. People do not want to accept trade of their information as they are greatly concerned about this. Use of new technologies by public authorities is silently deteriorating privacy of people which is wrongdoing. There is just smaller picture shown to us as collection of our images, sound and voice, geo-location presents concerning privacy and data protection risks. Private citizens are resisting to surveillance because of higher concerns related to abuse of their privacy (Friedewald, 2017). Privacy is important for development of autonomy in individual. Person’s ability to make right decision is influenced by privacy, whereas, without privacy their ability to make sound decision is impaired as they get opinion from others. In context with child privacy, it is integral part of their future success to make right decisions and understanding about safely navigation of social boundaries and to know where they should not disclose information. Furthermore, surveillance can pose danger to children’s privacy and decision making. Censor wave which is used by many parents to monitor their kids is harmful for child’s socio-emotional well-being and development than other forms of monitoring devices. It does just pose privacy concerns, however, also can affect behavior of kids (Nolan, 2011). Surveillance in Private Sector Involvement of big communication companies regarding collection of data, privacy issues, and surveillance have led Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union took big companies to court for violation of people’s privacy. Private companies’ role in surveillance have concerned public over privacy, mostly because of their involvement with NSA in cyberspace (Andreasson, 2012). Revelation of strategy have been made possible because of citizen empowerment that explores in depths about “empire of surveillance” which curbs privacy and secrecy of individuals. Because of surveillance and advancement in technology, individuals not just become their own secret agents, however, also clear the pathway for those who are curious about their information. Private citizens leave track which give interested parties access to not just their personal information, whereas give freedom to trace citizens. Internet of things which is frequently used by people is also threat to them as it can collect data. There is availability of spy software that facilitates registration of customer’s habits on internet of things (IOT), as surveillance is primarily concentrated on technological information instead of human information. Social networking sites collects user data and sell it further which can raise privacy concerns as individuals’ text messages, posts and behavioral patterns are overseen which can raise some issues related to their anonymity. Companies have motive behind collecting data which is profits from data surveillance by sharing information with government agencies. These are privacy violations, whereas individuals do not pay attention while agreeing to terms and conditions on different applications. To understand and control activities of individuals, datafication is used as it intensifies level of opportunity to understand, predict, and control people actions in an environment which is influenced by “surveillance capitalism.” Social surveillance is powerful tool as it can presume model of power is running throughout all social relationships. Excessive usage can showcase destructive edge of these practices which can further turns to bullying digitally along with blackmailing with other things involved. Even thought of initiating surveillance and control on daily basis with help of social networking sites that is Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can invade privacy and their consequences can be detrimental. This is the reason we need to explore all these applications and know their consequences to gather enough information regarding nature of this spreading social issue (Hermida, 2020). Targeted advertising is another aspect which can be risky for privacy of individuals as it collects information about person’s preferences and behaviors. Primarily, targeted advertising supply consumers with what advertisers want, rather than what they want. Concern regarding targeting advertising and surveillance economy raises a question about privacy, health of user along with social media role in society. During time of surveillance capitalism, Americans are bothered by scarcity of control and power over collection of their data because they can sense privacy is becoming rare item. Because of targeted advertising many people have been exposed to security frauds because of lack of information and age. For instance, presence of information on social networking sites regarding landing page rule made it easy for fraudsters to make their advertisements and make money off these fraudulent offerings. This is exploitation of availability of information and innocent people as they are not aware of these activities. Research conducted shows how Americans who are not fully literate about finance are being robbed by fraudsters by giving them opportunity to invest in securities. To compete in digital economy, companies take aggressive role in targeted advertising and take steps to gather huge amount of data from consumers by specifically targeting them through advertising. Big data is collected by companies for further sale to different companies and government which can expose consumers behavior patterns and preferences without their consent and therefore invade their privacy. According to information collected by one source, it is evaluated that by 2018, ninety percent of data collected in human history has been generated in last two years. Concern is that this data not just include everyone’s social media posts, however, also included glucose levels of people measured by their smart watches. This data in wrong hands can be manipulated and can lead to serious threats to citizens as everything is available on personal level which gives option to bad guys to exploit it. Businesses collection of data and information about spending habits of individuals can be exploited as they send them advertisements about things they enjoy. It is not just invasion of privacy, however, also motivates bad eating habits and activities of individuals. Advancements and lack of knowledge regarding collection of big data is letting people take decisions which cannot be favorable to them. Social media platforms are smart enough to take advantage of their developed features which creates dopamine reactions in consumers which lead to more screen time for users as they get addicted. These practices benefit social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter as they collect and further distribute data about users to other platforms which include third parties, Facebook generates 90% of their profits from advertising. Social media have ability to forcefully maneuver their users as their model operate through algorithms build upon machine learning. Algorithms have ability of keeping attention of users, which is why there are no human programmers behind screen conducting predictions. The model is that powerful it turns not just attention of consumer, therefore, also change their long-term behavior into valuable product for advertisers. Exceptionally revolutionized methods are sold by social media platforms and companies to advertisers which have ability to orchestrate people and public sphere. Users’ behavior has been influenced by algorithms which operate autonomously, protection mechanism cannot protect users because of well-established and manipulated system in algorithms to control people’s behavior. Algorithms are dangerous as these do not just make changes in preferences by studying individual patterns, therefore, can also control their behavior in long run which can lead to loss of privacy and ability to think and decide rationally (Claxton, 2021). Privacy of people is concerned topic as it vested power to them to take decisions and make free choices during their life, whereas, with surveillance technologies their safety is at stake. Personal privacy of citizens has never been terrorized like it is happening now because of mass surveillance in physical and electronic domain. People are not in danger just physically, hence politically, and economically because of discovery of their data by private and public sectors which can give power to these people to further exploit their data and know about them. Gaining information regarding private’s citizens aspects of life which include their work life, private life, political views, spending habits can put them in greater risk as their rights are violated by listening and surveilling them. Facial recognition usage has far reached benefits for government, however, when used by private sectors is posing threats to people as they can be recognized by people with minacious purposes. It is stated that levels of surveillance and control in present is just beginning of what is going to happen in future, as substantial surveillance is coming. When people will realize and fear that all their actions including online and in person would be monitored, stored, and scored, it will create new prominence for privacy. Three technologies named Internet of Things (IOT), connected cars, and social media are new culprits as they expose citizens to advanced dangers. IOT along with connected cars is not safe for people as these technologies expose consumer to surveillance and substantial amount of manipulation with disclosing their intimate facts which they want to keep to themselves. These technologies have power to threaten and restrict behavior privacy. Behavior privacy is vital for citizens as it includes individual freedom to move out in public without surveillance. Internet of things is powerful tool which can threaten lives by various means as it has ability to connect everyday objects to internet and receive and send data to undisclosed sources. IOT devices which include light switches, cooking pans, stuffed animals, thermometers, and more have power to phone home to manufacturer, further disclose information to third parties and it is unguarded to hacking. To illustrate, there have been usage of approximately two billion IOT devices across globe, with many more to get introduced. These devices compromise all four categorized areas of privacy which include personal, intimate, semi-private, and public. Disclosure of information lead to risk of people’s security as it can increase threat of violence, blackmail, and price discrimination which are examples of bodily threats. Bodily threats can harm bodily privacy of individuals which is fundamental form of safety, individual’s interest in his own physical self. Another example is BMW cars nowadays comes with build up Alexa which not just follow individual’s commands, therefore, also listen to their conversations, and send data to company which further is used for various purposes (Froomkin, 2020). The power effects of surveillance indicate additional dangers of surveillance which includes blackmail, discrimination, and persuasion. Firstly, information gathered covertly can be used for blackmail and discrediting opposition by leaking their embarrassing secrets. Risks of unfair use of surveillance technologies records are going on. Secret surveillance carried out in wide range gives forcing power to watcher. Secondly, persuasion provides watcher power to persuade other party. Governments also take benefit of surveillance to control behavior of people. For example, closed circuit television networks in mostly all areas give authority to watcher to watch people’s behavior and that can be used against them because information gives watcher information about watched person. This information can increase power of watcher over watched as used to persuade, influence, and control the watched individual. Thirdly, discrimination by companies towards customers on some basis. Companies which include google pile up great number of detailed profiles of our web-surfing habits, interests and buying habits. Power hold by companies to treat people differently is dangerous. People are being taken advantage of because of differentiated features. Surveillance also restricts intellectual activities as watching over people all time can impact them in bad way. Also, surveillance can lead to reason of people not experimenting with new, controversial, and deviant ideas which can impact their brain activity (Richards, 2013). Additionally, companies exploit their workers by using surveillance to monitor their efficiency. For example, surveillance cameras are placed in transportation trucks of Amazon delivery. They monitor and track number of delivered units and hence equate the labor of people with numbers. They are exposed to inhumane conditions and must work without any breaks. Moreover, internet tracking technologies which can read email with help of artificial intelligence are being commonly used to “gauge office mood and body censors at desk to track presence and performance” of its workers (Doberstein et. al, 2021). Surveillance in Government (America, China, Kyrgyzstan) Surveillance by government on private citizens can have myriad effects which can harm their privacy. Mostly people are worried about surveillance technologies used by government as they fear that it would be impossible for them to hide because of increased dependency on surveillance. The fear arises from the fact that government is holding large amount of data, that can invade privacy of private citizens. It is evident that many data breaches have exposed private citizens’ personal information which left them devastated. There are various examples seen throughout history where government have misused data knowingly and unknowingly because of their poor organization of keeping data safe. After unfortunate events of 9/11, President at that time, Bush started Patriot Act which gives authority to National Security Agency (NSA) to start surveillance of American telephone and internet communications without prior approval from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Agency (FISA) which violated rights of Americans as they have been watched without their consent. People have been exploited by government as they do not have information about being surveilled. Internet surveillance have been conducted under FBI’s Carnivore Program which included deployment of packet sniffing servers to Internet Service Providers for monitoring emails and other types of communication on internet which violate privacy of citizens and thus received backlash from Civil Liberties Group. It is recognized by people that governments around world are so huge, rigid, and prevalent that the data collected by them can have massive repercussion if being misused and stolen. Misplacement of data collected by governments can have impacts on lives of private citizens as they can be robbed, assassinated, and harmed on basis of information available. Another issue is privacy which can be exploited by hackers after invasion of government sites which can pose threat to citizens (Andreasson, 2012). State surveillance without knowledge of private citizens is dangerous as it uses combination of traditional and modern surveillance. Using advanced digitalized technologies, which includes monitoring online presence and mobile phones with amalgamation of old-fashioned surveillance which includes following suspect, taking photos of person, along with menacing them. These techniques are used by Kyrgyzstan and China to conduct surveillance over their citizens as observed by researchers who went to collect information on these matters. State surveillances interfere with lives of citizens as they are monitored which can lead to distrust and emergence of fear in them. Experiencing surveillance can increase fear in people’s mind and can impact how they trust others which include using caution while searching for information on internet. When particularly mentioning Kyrgyzstan and Chinese government, state surveillance gives authority to representatives of state security to arrest people in China who compromised their national security, and Kyrgyzstan gives authority to arrest those who encourage ethnic hostility. To cite an example, in Chinese state of Xinjiang, there is prohibition on usage of not Chinese apps to ease surveillance of digital communications and to stop public show of Islamic religion which can lead to detention and arrest. Case of state surveillance showcases that there are various types of risks present by surveillance in people’s lives as they live in state of fear (Ryan, 2020). In Surveillance of Victim, it is stated that we as private citizens are being monitored by government to private sector in various forms from facial recognition to presence on social networking sites which resulted in collection of enormous data about us which is being collected, digested, analyzed, and processed with help of algorithms to discover taste, beliefs, desires, and hopes. It endangers personhood from inside which is result of manipulation of people by state and corporation to fulfill the agenda of surveillance for specific purpose which can occur during threat of terrorism (Couturier, 2021). Surveillance takes away power from people to be themselves because of awareness of being monitored which can further lead to complications in people’s mind and way they react. US government tried to keep surveillance information private from their citizens by running programs secretly without public knowledge which include listening to personal phone calls to monitoring them. It was later revealed by Snowden that NSA have been surveilling citizens without their knowledge by revealing depts of National Security Agency’s domestic collection program in 2013. National intelligence collection practices included digital surveillance on UN citizens rather than just foreign targets to detect and avoid any kind of terrorist attack on country. Digital surveillance on their own citizens pose risk to privacy of citizens as they can watched anywhere from their home, workplace, to public spaces without their knowledge which in return can reveal some embarrassing habits and secrets of people that can be used against them by watchers for nefarious purposes. To prove secret surveillance being conducted, Snowden who was IT systems expert shared many top-secret documents regarding surveillance by intelligence agencies in America with journalists from prestigious newspapers which include The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Intercept. Private citizens were mainly affected by these programs as their rights have been violated and their information of everyday life was kept which in wrong hands can cause them not just financial distrust, however, can led to serious consequences. Publication of “Top Secret” a declassified report by FISA in 2017 have revealed that National Security Agency have violated fourth amendment rights of Americans by exploiting intelligence tools to gather information. Sensitive information ranges from social security numbers, text messages, credit card information, emails, to address of private citizens have been collected by government for various purposes expose them to risk of being abused by hackers. For instance, data breach at Equifax exposed more than millions of American people’s personal information which can be used by hackers for wrongdoings and government cannot do anything about it because of their backup systems and no exact location of IP addresses. Due to secret surveillance people lose their right as individuals and private citizens, this is disturbing experience for all those people who have not proved of surveillance, however, they have lived with it as it is new era of national security where people are being controlled without their knowledge (Taschner, 2021). Furthermore, surveillance technology has power to curtail human rights of people in any country. Intense surveillance by Chinese government on Uyghur Muslims is example of racial discrimination because their fundamental rights are violated as they have been deprived by Chinese government to follow their religion. China breached their obligations towards providing fundamental freedom under international convention on elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. Uyghurs have been deprived of freedom of religion and forced by government not to practice their religion and creates unsafe environment for them. It indicates that how Uyghurs have been exploited by intense surveillance and it is threatening their livelihood if they do not follow regime (Briglia, 2021). Surveillance by government also threats intellectual privacy of people and can affects power balance between individuals and watchers, which can lead to risk of pervasion by watchers, and can also be blackmailed and private citizens’ sensitive information can be used for dangerous purposes. Surveillance of people during intellectual activity have negative impacts on individuals as they will feel unsafe about expressing their true opinion about political and social issues. Secret surveillance documents and files have been used from time to time to hurt others which can be private individuals as result of data gathered by government in unsafe manner. (Richards, 2013). Wiretapping, which is controversial topic in America, have raises concerns in citizens as data is collected in name of national security and public safety, whereas, intruding privacy of their private citizens. Biddle, who worked as chair of National Committee of American Civil Liberties Union states that wiretapping is a dirty business and expressed that it violates privacy of citizens. Therefore, government have ability to gather foreign intelligence, and information on various things without sacrificing their own citizens’ interest. However, they opt for privacy invasion of US citizens, undermining their right of equality and free speech. Targets of surveillance are mostly dissidents and disfavored groups which creates reasonable question about discrimination being done with these groups in country. People’s lives have been affected by these decisions made by government without their consent which can lead to various type of issues for people which can include how they think about themselves being watched all the time, mental health, and many unwritten circumstances (Margulies, 2021). Government has that type of advanced surveillance which can find anyone on this planet. Example is usage of X-Key score tool by National Security Agency which allows them to track every keystroke on computer. Even governments around the world have surveillance in regions which are remote and not properly connected to world without consent and knowledge of citizens. Government takes advantage of satellites to trace and watch around remote regions of world. They have power to watch us anytime which showcase death of privacy. In America, National Security Agency in one month collected data on 100 billion emails and 125 billion phone calls across world (Doughty, 2014). Measures Individuals can alter their choice of research topics, data collection tools, and methodologies to protect ourselves and others from state surveillance. Locational privacy can offer people protection against all kind of real and potential dangers to their physical safety. Laws and regulations in place by government to protect their citizens towards mass surveillance and get their permission before wiretapping and gathering data without consent. Racial profiling should be eliminated to some order to protect citizens towards discrimination. Conclusion To sum up, the important negative influences of surveillance technologies are intrusion of citizens privacy, discrimination on basis of groups, health of people- psychological impacts. However, these negative problems also have some solution. Some of which are discussed above like altering individuals’ choice and elimination of racial profiling, which are essentially helpful. Thus, use of surveillance technology has potential to violate human rights of individuals (privacy) in any country. References Briglia, M. D. (2021). Big Brother Xi: How China’s Surveillance of the Uyghur Population Violates International Law. George Washington International Law Review, 53(1), 85–118. Claxton, C. M. (2021). Private Offerings in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Targeted Advertising. Vanderbilt Law Review, 74(4), 1187–1229. Couturier, D. B. (2020). The Surveillance of the Victim: Visibility, Privacy, and the Crisis of Bodies in Franciscan Thought. CrossCurrents, 70(2), 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/cros.12427 Doughty, H. A. (2014). Surveillance, Big Data Analytics, and the Death of Privacy. College Quarterly, 17(3). Doberstein, C., Charbonneau, É., Morin, G., & Despatie, S. (2021). Measuring the Acceptability of Facial Recognition-Enabled Work Surveillance Cameras in the Public and Private Sector. Public Performance & Management Review, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2021.1931374 Froomkin, M., & Colangelo, Z. (2020). Privacy as Safety. Washington Law Review, 95(1), 141–203. Hermida, A., & Hernández-Santaolalla, V. (2020). Horizontal surveillance, mobile communication, and social networking sites. The lack of privacy in young people’s daily lives. Communication & Society, 33(1), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.33.1.139-152 Horrace, W. C., & Rohlin, S. M. (2016). How Dark Is Dark? Bright Lights, Big City, Racial Profiling. Review of Economics & Statistics, 98(2), 226–232. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00543 Jooste, Y. (2021). Surveillance capitalism as white world-making. Acta Academica, 53(1), 44–67. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa53i1.3 Kim J. Andreasson. (2012). Cybersecurity: Public Sector Threats and Responses. CRC Press. MARGULIES, P. (2021). Searching for Accountability under Fisa: Internal Separation of Powers and Surveillance Law. Marquette Law Review, 104(4), 1155–1214. Michael Friedewald, J. Peter Burgess, Johann Čas, Rocco Bellanova, & Walter Peissl. (2017). Surveillance, Privacy and Security: Citizens’ Perspectives. Routledge. Neil M. Richards. (2013). The Dangers of Surveillance. Harvard Law Review, 126(7), 1934–1965. Nolan, J., Raynes-Goldie, K., & McBride, M. (2011). The Stranger Danger: Exploring Surveillance, Autonomy, and Privacy in Children’s Use of social media. Canadian Children, 36(2), 24–32. Rushin, S., & Edwards, G. (2021). An Empirical Assessment of Pretextual Stops and Racial Profiling. Stanford Law Review, 73(3), 637–726. Ryan, C. M., & Tynen, S. (2020). Fieldwork Under Surveillance: Rethinking Relations of Trust, Vulnerability, and State Power. Geographical Review, 110(1/2), 38–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/gere.12360 TASCHNER, J. (2021). Era of Accelerating Digital Convergence: Security, Surveillance, Data, Privacy, Big Tech, and Politics. American University International Law Review, 36(4), 773–844.
You need to write your review/comments on the first one or two pages of this file.
Threats of Surveillance on Private Citizens 22 Threats of Surveillance on Private Citizens: Government and Privacy issues This paper investigates negative impact of surveillance on citizens by public, private and government sector. Further I explore possible solution to this problem. Surveillance is ubiquitous and so are its negative effects. As outlined by Snowden, an IT analyst for NSA who exposed illegal activities of US government. NSA took advantage of wiretapping and video surveillance technology to keep an eye on their private citizens without their consent and knowledge. Though he brought out the true intentions of the government in front of public but was rewarded as being a traitor. Revelations made by Snowden are not singular in nature. Being surrounded by technology, we all are at risk of this kind of surveillance. So, to start with, below I explore the surveillance technologies as used by public sector. Surveillance in Public Sector Increased utilization and dependency on internet are detrimental for public sector as it is exposing this sector into serious risks. Research conduced by Neil Robinson on public policy at RAND Europe indicates potential risks and threats of surveillance and cyberspace which can be accessed by hackers. Statistics by Europe’s Digital Agenda website shows that only 12% of European consumer feel safe in doing online transactions which is result of fear of surveillance and loss of information. Public Sector expose private citizens privacy and information when being hacked which can include their personal information to health information (Andreasson, 2012). Businesses are focused on making themselves rich and profitable by neglecting privacy and concerns of citizens. Social media businesses focus on personal data surveillance of people with products designed in such a way to keep an eye on us to offer their services and push our decisions. Attention grabbing algorithms used by these platforms aim to create confusion, prejudice, ignorance, and chaos in people by undermining accountability and facilitate manipulations. It creates issues with individuals’ freedom of speech and expression as they do not prefer to showcase their feelings as they get influenced by these behavior patterns. Social media is getting that much powerful which raises alarming question about well-being of people. Data surveillance is burgeoning issue which is impacting domestic privacy of citizens. There are various acts at play which include physical, security, and economic risks. Public sectors gather all information we reveal as it is set of another data bite to be mined, measured, sorted, and sold by them. Mostly data surveillance is kept secret as it can raise questions in people’s mind, and they can refuse to use their data. These revelations showcases that this modern stage of human history is alarming because concerned are being raised about disinformation, privacy breaches, and hate speeches saturate the society. Cyber criminals are intelligent enough to hack data from public sectors which can lot of damage to huge databases including information of private citizens from their names to emails. Large number of people make use of passwords which are easily predictable. Acknowledgement to former well-known breaches most of people’s passwords are available on dark web. Amazon endured extensive data breach in 2018 which led to release of customer’s names and email addresses on their website (Taschner, 2021). Threats present by constant surveillance and distribution of information is unreasonable takeover privacy which lead to serious consequences for citizens as they do not feel fully protected. These practices do not end here, public sector take advantage of personal data analytics which build vertical representation of individuals which can take control over our identifies as data doubles are introduced. They discriminate people by using big data algorithms. These give them power to differentiate and separate people of society into different groups by identifying patterns of similarities and differences in people. Companies engage in illegal form of discrimination that includes predatory lending, differentiated prices by retailing companies and racial profiling of people. It is horrific and eye-opening experience as companies are predicting our future actions and behaviors based on collection of present-day data doubles. Risks are not just associated to private citizens, therefore public sector is exposed to dataveillance and big data operations which have capacity of alarming consequences (Jooste, 2021). Racial Profiling is being conducted by police agencies to minimize crime, whereas, it is discriminating people on basis of their race, ethnicity, religion. There is increase in racial profiling of minority drivers as permission is being granted to police officers to engage in pretextual traffic stops. Increased frequency of racial profiling raises a concern for non-white drivers as they are mainly targeted. Through research it is evident that racial profiling during day light hours is at increase as police officers can ascertain race of nearby drivers clearly. Black and Hispanic drivers are mostly victims of this phenomenon. Racial profiling by police agencies shows troubling patterns across country. It creates disparity between people on basis of their appearance and how they are being treated. And it is difficult for victims of racial profiling to seek relief as they must go through long legal procedures (Rushin, 2021). Racial profiling is offensive because profiling methods used by police not only condemn profiled person, but whole profiled group is also condemned. It purposes that behavior of suspect is not free and is strongly connected with issue of freedom (Horrace, 2016). Citizens express their concerns and fear about abuse of their information and power. Most of the concerns shown by people are related to misuse of information being gathered by surveillance technologies. It produces fear regarding function creep and abuse of power by security authorities who conduct these technologies. People do not want to accept trade of their information as they are greatly concerned about this. Use of new technologies by public authorities is silently deteriorating privacy of people which is wrongdoing. There is just smaller picture shown to us as collection of our images, sound and voice, geo-location presents concerning privacy and data protection risks. Private citizens are resisting to surveillance because of higher concerns related to abuse of their privacy (Friedewald, 2017). Privacy is important for development of autonomy in individual. Person’s ability to make right decision is influenced by privacy, whereas, without privacy their ability to make sound decision is impaired as they get opinion from others. In context with child privacy, it is integral part of their future success to make right decisions and understanding about safely navigation of social boundaries and to know where they should not disclose information. Furthermore, surveillance can pose danger to children’s privacy and decision making. Censor wave which is used by many parents to monitor their kids is harmful for child’s socio-emotional well-being and development than other forms of monitoring devices. It does just pose privacy concerns, however, also can affect behavior of kids (Nolan, 2011). Surveillance in Private Sector Involvement of big communication companies regarding collection of data, privacy issues, and surveillance have led Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union took big companies to court for violation of people’s privacy. Private companies’ role in surveillance have concerned public over privacy, mostly because of their involvement with NSA in cyberspace (Andreasson, 2012). Revelation of strategy have been made possible because of citizen empowerment that explores in depths about “empire of surveillance” which curbs privacy and secrecy of individuals. Because of surveillance and advancement in technology, individuals not just become their own secret agents, however, also clear the pathway for those who are curious about their information. Private citizens leave track which give interested parties access to not just their personal information, whereas give freedom to trace citizens. Internet of things which is frequently used by people is also threat to them as it can collect data. There is availability of spy software that facilitates registration of customer’s habits on internet of things (IOT), as surveillance is primarily concentrated on technological information instead of human information. Social networking sites collects user data and sell it further which can raise privacy concerns as individuals’ text messages, posts and behavioral patterns are overseen which can raise some issues related to their anonymity. Companies have motive behind collecting data which is profits from data surveillance by sharing information with government agencies. These are privacy violations, whereas individuals do not pay attention while agreeing to terms and conditions on different applications. To understand and control activities of individuals, datafication is used as it intensifies level of opportunity to understand, predict, and control people actions in an environment which is influenced by “surveillance capitalism.” Social surveillance is powerful tool as it can presume model of power is running throughout all social relationships. Excessive usage can showcase destructive edge of these practices which can further turns to bullying digitally along with blackmailing with other things involved. Even thought of initiating surveillance and control on daily basis with help of social networking sites that is Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can invade privacy and their consequences can be detrimental. This is the reason we need to explore all these applications and know their consequences to gather enough information regarding nature of this spreading social issue (Hermida, 2020). Targeted advertising is another aspect which can be risky for privacy of individuals as it collects information about person’s preferences and behaviors. Primarily, targeted advertising supply consumers with what advertisers want, rather than what they want. Concern regarding targeting advertising and surveillance economy raises a question about privacy, health of user along with social media role in society. During time of surveillance capitalism, Americans are bothered by scarcity of control and power over collection of their data because they can sense privacy is becoming rare item. Because of targeted advertising many people have been exposed to security frauds because of lack of information and age. For instance, presence of information on social networking sites regarding landing page rule made it easy for fraudsters to make their advertisements and make money off these fraudulent offerings. This is exploitation of availability of information and innocent people as they are not aware of these activities. Research conducted shows how Americans who are not fully literate about finance are being robbed by fraudsters by giving them opportunity to invest in securities. To compete in digital economy, companies take aggressive role in targeted advertising and take steps to gather huge amount of data from consumers by specifically targeting them through advertising. Big data is collected by companies for further sale to different companies and government which can expose consumers behavior patterns and preferences without their consent and therefore invade their privacy. According to information collected by one source, it is evaluated that by 2018, ninety percent of data collected in human history has been generated in last two years. Concern is that this data not just include everyone’s social media posts, however, also included glucose levels of people measured by their smart watches. This data in wrong hands can be manipulated and can lead to serious threats to citizens as everything is available on personal level which gives option to bad guys to exploit it. Businesses collection of data and information about spending habits of individuals can be exploited as they send them advertisements about things they enjoy. It is not just invasion of privacy, however, also motivates bad eating habits and activities of individuals. Advancements and lack of knowledge regarding collection of big data is letting people take decisions which cannot be favorable to them. Social media platforms are smart enough to take advantage of their developed features which creates dopamine reactions in consumers which lead to more screen time for users as they get addicted. These practices benefit social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter as they collect and further distribute data about users to other platforms which include third parties, Facebook generates 90% of their profits from advertising. Social media have ability to forcefully maneuver their users as their model operate through algorithms build upon machine learning. Algorithms have ability of keeping attention of users, which is why there are no human programmers behind screen conducting predictions. The model is that powerful it turns not just attention of consumer, therefore, also change their long-term behavior into valuable product for advertisers. Exceptionally revolutionized methods are sold by social media platforms and companies to advertisers which have ability to orchestrate people and public sphere. Users’ behavior has been influenced by algorithms which operate autonomously, protection mechanism cannot protect users because of well-established and manipulated system in algorithms to control people’s behavior. Algorithms are dangerous as these do not just make changes in preferences by studying individual patterns, therefore, can also control their behavior in long run which can lead to loss of privacy and ability to think and decide rationally (Claxton, 2021). Privacy of people is concerned topic as it vested power to them to take decisions and make free choices during their life, whereas, with surveillance technologies their safety is at stake. Personal privacy of citizens has never been terrorized like it is happening now because of mass surveillance in physical and electronic domain. People are not in danger just physically, hence politically, and economically because of discovery of their data by private and public sectors which can give power to these people to further exploit their data and know about them. Gaining information regarding private’s citizens aspects of life which include their work life, private life, political views, spending habits can put them in greater risk as their rights are violated by listening and surveilling them. Facial recognition usage has far reached benefits for government, however, when used by private sectors is posing threats to people as they can be recognized by people with minacious purposes. It is stated that levels of surveillance and control in present is just beginning of what is going to happen in future, as substantial surveillance is coming. When people will realize and fear that all their actions including online and in person would be monitored, stored, and scored, it will create new prominence for privacy. Three technologies named Internet of Things (IOT), connected cars, and social media are new culprits as they expose citizens to advanced dangers. IOT along with connected cars is not safe for people as these technologies expose consumer to surveillance and substantial amount of manipulation with disclosing their intimate facts which they want to keep to themselves. These technologies have power to threaten and restrict behavior privacy. Behavior privacy is vital for citizens as it includes individual freedom to move out in public without surveillance. Internet of things is powerful tool which can threaten lives by various means as it has ability to connect everyday objects to internet and receive and send data to undisclosed sources. IOT devices which include light switches, cooking pans, stuffed animals, thermometers, and more have power to phone home to manufacturer, further disclose information to third parties and it is unguarded to hacking. To illustrate, there have been usage of approximately two billion IOT devices across globe, with many more to get introduced. These devices compromise all four categorized areas of privacy which include personal, intimate, semi-private, and public. Disclosure of information lead to risk of people’s security as it can increase threat of violence, blackmail, and price discrimination which are examples of bodily threats. Bodily threats can harm bodily privacy of individuals which is fundamental form of safety, individual’s interest in his own physical self. Another example is BMW cars nowadays comes with build up Alexa which not just follow individual’s commands, therefore, also listen to their conversations, and send data to company which further is used for various purposes (Froomkin, 2020). The power effects of surveillance indicate additional dangers of surveillance which includes blackmail, discrimination, and persuasion. Firstly, information gathered covertly can be used for blackmail and discrediting opposition by leaking their embarrassing secrets. Risks of unfair use of surveillance technologies records are going on. Secret surveillance carried out in wide range gives forcing power to watcher. Secondly, persuasion provides watcher power to persuade other party. Governments also take benefit of surveillance to control behavior of people. For example, closed circuit television networks in mostly all areas give authority to watcher to watch people’s behavior and that can be used against them because information gives watcher information about watched person. This information can increase power of watcher over watched as used to persuade, influence, and control the watched individual. Thirdly, discrimination by companies towards customers on some basis. Companies which include google pile up great number of detailed profiles of our web-surfing habits, interests and buying habits. Power hold by companies to treat people differently is dangerous. People are being taken advantage of because of differentiated features. Surveillance also restricts intellectual activities as watching over people all time can impact them in bad way. Also, surveillance can lead to reason of people not experimenting with new, controversial, and deviant ideas which can impact their brain activity (Richards, 2013). Additionally, companies exploit their workers by using surveillance to monitor their efficiency. For example, surveillance cameras are placed in transportation trucks of Amazon delivery. They monitor and track number of delivered units and hence equate the labor of people with numbers. They are exposed to inhumane conditions and must work without any breaks. Moreover, internet tracking technologies which can read email with help of artificial intelligence are being commonly used to “gauge office mood and body censors at desk to track presence and performance” of its workers (Doberstein et. al, 2021). Surveillance in Government (America, China, Kyrgyzstan) Surveillance by government on private citizens can have myriad effects which can harm their privacy. Mostly people are worried about surveillance technologies used by government as they fear that it would be impossible for them to hide because of increased dependency on surveillance. The fear arises from the fact that government is holding large amount of data, that can invade privacy of private citizens. It is evident that many data breaches have exposed private citizens’ personal information which left them devastated. There are various examples seen throughout history where government have misused data knowingly and unknowingly because of their poor organization of keeping data safe. After unfortunate events of 9/11, President at that time, Bush started Patriot Act which gives authority to National Security Agency (NSA) to start surveillance of American telephone and internet communications without prior approval from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Agency (FISA) which violated rights of Americans as they have been watched without their consent. People have been exploited by government as they do not have information about being surveilled. Internet surveillance have been conducted under FBI’s Carnivore Program which included deployment of packet sniffing servers to Internet Service Providers for monitoring emails and other types of communication on internet which violate privacy of citizens and thus received backlash from Civil Liberties Group. It is recognized by people that governments around world are so huge, rigid, and prevalent that the data collected by them can have massive repercussion if being misused and stolen. Misplacement of data collected by governments can have impacts on lives of private citizens as they can be robbed, assassinated, and harmed on basis of information available. Another issue is privacy which can be exploited by hackers after invasion of government sites which can pose threat to citizens (Andreasson, 2012). State surveillance without knowledge of private citizens is dangerous as it uses combination of traditional and modern surveillance. Using advanced digitalized technologies, which includes monitoring online presence and mobile phones with amalgamation of old-fashioned surveillance which includes following suspect, taking photos of person, along with menacing them. These techniques are used by Kyrgyzstan and China to conduct surveillance over their citizens as observed by researchers who went to collect information on these matters. State surveillances interfere with lives of citizens as they are monitored which can lead to distrust and emergence of fear in them. Experiencing surveillance can increase fear in people’s mind and can impact how they trust others which include using caution while searching for information on internet. When particularly mentioning Kyrgyzstan and Chinese government, state surveillance gives authority to representatives of state security to arrest people in China who compromised their national security, and Kyrgyzstan gives authority to arrest those who encourage ethnic hostility. To cite an example, in Chinese state of Xinjiang, there is prohibition on usage of not Chinese apps to ease surveillance of digital communications and to stop public show of Islamic religion which can lead to detention and arrest. Case of state surveillance showcases that there are various types of risks present by surveillance in people’s lives as they live in state of fear (Ryan, 2020). In Surveillance of Victim, it is stated that we as private citizens are being monitored by government to private sector in various forms from facial recognition to presence on social networking sites which resulted in collection of enormous data about us which is being collected, digested, analyzed, and processed with help of algorithms to discover taste, beliefs, desires, and hopes. It endangers personhood from inside which is result of manipulation of people by state and corporation to fulfill the agenda of surveillance for specific purpose which can occur during threat of terrorism (Couturier, 2021). Surveillance takes away power from people to be themselves because of awareness of being monitored which can further lead to complications in people’s mind and way they react. US government tried to keep surveillance information private from their citizens by running programs secretly without public knowledge which include listening to personal phone calls to monitoring them. It was later revealed by Snowden that NSA have been surveilling citizens without their knowledge by revealing depts of National Security Agency’s domestic collection program in 2013. National intelligence collection practices included digital surveillance on UN citizens rather than just foreign targets to detect and avoid any kind of terrorist attack on country. Digital surveillance on their own citizens pose risk to privacy of citizens as they can watched anywhere from their home, workplace, to public spaces without their knowledge which in return can reveal some embarrassing habits and secrets of people that can be used against them by watchers for nefarious purposes. To prove secret surveillance being conducted, Snowden who was IT systems expert shared many top-secret documents regarding surveillance by intelligence agencies in America with journalists from prestigious newspapers which include The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Intercept. Private citizens were mainly affected by these programs as their rights have been violated and their information of everyday life was kept which in wrong hands can cause them not just financial distrust, however, can led to serious consequences. Publication of “Top Secret” a declassified report by FISA in 2017 have revealed that National Security Agency have violated fourth amendment rights of Americans by exploiting intelligence tools to gather information. Sensitive information ranges from social security numbers, text messages, credit card information, emails, to address of private citizens have been collected by government for various purposes expose them to risk of being abused by hackers. For instance, data breach at Equifax exposed more than millions of American people’s personal information which can be used by hackers for wrongdoings and government cannot do anything about it because of their backup systems and no exact location of IP addresses. Due to secret surveillance people lose their right as individuals and private citizens, this is disturbing experience for all those people who have not proved of surveillance, however, they have lived with it as it is new era of national security where people are being controlled without their knowledge (Taschner, 2021). Furthermore, surveillance technology has power to curtail human rights of people in any country. Intense surveillance by Chinese government on Uyghur Muslims is example of racial discrimination because their fundamental rights are violated as they have been deprived by Chinese government to follow their religion. China breached their obligations towards providing fundamental freedom under international convention on elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. Uyghurs have been deprived of freedom of religion and forced by government not to practice their religion and creates unsafe environment for them. It indicates that how Uyghurs have been exploited by intense surveillance and it is threatening their livelihood if they do not follow regime (Briglia, 2021). Surveillance by government also threats intellectual privacy of people and can affects power balance between individuals and watchers, which can lead to risk of pervasion by watchers, and can also be blackmailed and private citizens’ sensitive information can be used for dangerous purposes. Surveillance of people during intellectual activity have negative impacts on individuals as they will feel unsafe about expressing their true opinion about political and social issues. Secret surveillance documents and files have been used from time to time to hurt others which can be private individuals as result of data gathered by government in unsafe manner. (Richards, 2013). Wiretapping, which is controversial topic in America, have raises concerns in citizens as data is collected in name of national security and public safety, whereas, intruding privacy of their private citizens. Biddle, who worked as chair of National Committee of American Civil Liberties Union states that wiretapping is a dirty business and expressed that it violates privacy of citizens. Therefore, government have ability to gather foreign intelligence, and information on various things without sacrificing their own citizens’ interest. However, they opt for privacy invasion of US citizens, undermining their right of equality and free speech. Targets of surveillance are mostly dissidents and disfavored groups which creates reasonable question about discrimination being done with these groups in country. People’s lives have been affected by these decisions made by government without their consent which can lead to various type of issues for people which can include how they think about themselves being watched all the time, mental health, and many unwritten circumstances (Margulies, 2021). Government has that type of advanced surveillance which can find anyone on this planet. Example is usage of X-Key score tool by National Security Agency which allows them to track every keystroke on computer. Even governments around the world have surveillance in regions which are remote and not properly connected to world without consent and knowledge of citizens. Government takes advantage of satellites to trace and watch around remote regions of world. They have power to watch us anytime which showcase death of privacy. In America, National Security Agency in one month collected data on 100 billion emails and 125 billion phone calls across world (Doughty, 2014). Measures Individuals can alter their choice of research topics, data collection tools, and methodologies to protect ourselves and others from state surveillance. Locational privacy can offer people protection against all kind of real and potential dangers to their physical safety. Laws and regulations in place by government to protect their citizens towards mass surveillance and get their permission before wiretapping and gathering data without consent. Racial profiling should be eliminated to some order to protect citizens towards discrimination. Conclusion To sum up, the important negative influences of surveillance technologies are intrusion of citizens privacy, discrimination on basis of groups, health of people- psychological impacts. However, these negative problems also have some solution. Some of which are discussed above like altering individuals’ choice and elimination of racial profiling, which are essentially helpful. Thus, use of surveillance technology has potential to violate human rights of individuals (privacy) in any country. References Briglia, M. D. (2021). Big Brother Xi: How China’s Surveillance of the Uyghur Population Violates International Law. George Washington International Law Review, 53(1), 85–118. Claxton, C. M. (2021). Private Offerings in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Targeted Advertising. Vanderbilt Law Review, 74(4), 1187–1229. Couturier, D. B. (2020). The Surveillance of the Victim: Visibility, Privacy, and the Crisis of Bodies in Franciscan Thought. CrossCurrents, 70(2), 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1111/cros.12427 Doughty, H. A. (2014). Surveillance, Big Data Analytics, and the Death of Privacy. College Quarterly, 17(3). Doberstein, C., Charbonneau, É., Morin, G., & Despatie, S. (2021). 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