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Anticipation Guide 1984 IP: 107.214.186.89 Posted on February 13, 2015 at 05:17:53 AM by Michelle Dang
I strongly do not agree with the statement, “To ensure our country's freedom, the government should be able to spy on its citizen." The whole statement is a huge contradiction. If the government is constantly spy on the citizens, they are not free. To be free means to be able to live and do things in one’s daily life without having to worry about constantly being watched. Being monitored by the government 24/7 does not only take away the citizen’s freedom, but also invades their rights. According to the Bill of Rights, the fourth Amendment, “prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.” The government keeping their citizens under a close watch is not a good strategy to use to ensure a country’s freedom. The citizens will feel like they are the bad guy and will not have a moment in peace. Everyone will be paranoid on trying to be perfect, making sure that they do not do anything wrong so that they will not get into serious trouble with the government. By the government spying on the citizens, there will be a boundary that the citizens will not want to cross because of the consequences that they would have to face if they were caught. In “Uncle Sam and the Illusion of Privacy Online” by Adrienne LaFrance, the government has made a vast amount of requests to Google, Facebook, and Twitter in regards of their user’s private information, some of which include IP addresses, user’s locations, and even deleted statuses or tweets. This not only invades their privacy, but also takes away the people’s freedom of speech. If people were aware that their tweets or statuses were being monitored, they cannot say what they really want to say because, if the government sees the tweet/status and they do not like it, then whoever tweeted/posted the tweet/status will be in some serious trouble with the government. However, there are people out there who do need to be constantly monitored but the government knows for sure that they are someone who are intentionally trying to harm other people or the country. When there is a serious problem that could potentially create damages to the country beyond repairs, it is necessary to constantly watch that one person or persons. The government can think of other ways to ensure a country’s freedom. Spying on the citizens is not a good tactic. The government should trust the country’s citizens. If the government wants to spy on the people, then the people should have the right to spy on the government. It’s a two way deal. We trust the government to run the country smoothly and to the best of their ability, so they should trust their people to do the right thing and follow the laws. Also, if the government does not want to give up some of their information to the public, then how will the people know that the government are not the bad guys? There are secrets that are meant to be kept from one another. If the government cannot trust the citizens to keep some of their secrets, then how can the government force the people to give up their privacy and let the government invade in their everyday lives? Replies: