Mariama Salia

“To ensure our country’s freedom, the government should be able to spy on its citizens.”The definition of spy is a person employed by the government to retrieve secret information or knowledge about another person with or without their knowledge. To me, this would be extremely dangerous if enforced in our society today. There have been several incidents of the government spying on people without their knowledge through phones, known as “phone tapping”. While the government defended themselves by saying it was for national security, people who were tapped were outraged by the invasion of privacy and those who weren’t, were fearful of the possible tapping into their conversations. To spy on a citizen of America is without a doubt an extreme invasion of privacy. With the “Total Information Awareness” program the government initiated in 2002, they’ve become able to gain access to credit card charges, visited web sites, emails sent or received, trips booked, grades received, even bank charges to be sent to their “virtual, centralized grand database”. The question is, do they need all that information? If someone isn’t plotting anything against our society but is being tapped, is that ethical?Personally, no, it’s not ethical. This doesn’t ensure our freedom if we’re constantly being recorded by someone. For hundreds of years different groups of society have struggled to gain their freedom, which to them represented not being controlled by anyone. If our society knows that they’re being watched and that one wrong they do might turn for the worst for them, are we able to think freely and truly? I doubt that the government will enforce TV's that are able to see and hear you like in 1984, but how far will they go to "protect society" if it means invading everyones lives?