Government Surveillance

 

Government Surveillance  

New technologies have given governments around the world unprecedented means to collect and access personal information. This includes law enforcement agencies demanding content from tech companies, intelligence agencies tapping directly into internet cables, and the use of surveillance technologies such as license plate readers or facial recognition cameras.

Much of this government surveillance is aimed at enhancing national security and safety, yet in order to ensure all people can seek information and express themselves freely, there must be reasonable checks and balances on governments’ ability to access, collect, and store individuals’ data. Both security and freedom can be protected, but only through balanced laws and policies that uphold human rights.

Encryption and Government Hacking

The world is more secure when personal our devices and digital communications utilize encryption technology. Encryption is the technical foundation of our entire digital environment, keeping medical records, passwords, and entire accounts safe. Without encryption, there would be no online banking, bill paying, or shopping. Without encryption, pioneering and courageous journalism and dissent would be put at increased risk.

Encrypting the data on smartphones, tablets, and our increasingly internet-connected televisions, cars, washing machines, and thermostats helps protect against malicious hacking, identity theft, harassment, and other crimes. In addition, encrypting data as it moves can prevent hackers and foreign governments from accessing your communications on a massive scale without your knowledge.

While there are regularly calls from law enforcement and government officials for “exceptional access” or the weakening of encrypted technologies, requiring platforms and device manufacturers to build backdoors into their products to facilitate law enforcement access would make everyone more susceptible to malicious hacking, from criminals and foreign adversaries alike.

People say that they want effective law enforcement, and want the police to be able to gather evidence when investigating a crime. The problem, however, is that any encryption that can be compromised to aid law enforcement can also be compromised by corrupt police for unlawful purposes. According to September 28, 2016, Associated Press News report: "Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work. Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But the AP’s review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated: "Privacy today faces growing threats from a growing surveillance apparatus that is often justified in the name of national security. Numerous government agencies—including the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local law enforcement agencies—intrude upon the private communications of innocent citizens, amass vast databases of who we call and when, and catalog “suspicious activities” based on the vaguest standards.

The government’s collection of this sensitive information is itself an invasion of privacy. But its use of this data is also rife with abuse. Innocuous data is fed into bloated watchlists, with severe consequences—innocent individuals have found themselves unable to board planes, barred from certain types of jobs, shut out of their bank accounts, and repeatedly questioned by authorities. Once information is in the government’s hands, it can be shared widely and retained for years, and the rules about access and use can be changed entirely in secret without the public ever knowing.

Our Constitution and democratic system demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people, not the other way around. History has shown that powerful, secret surveillance tools will almost certainly be abused for political ends and turned disproportionately on disfavored minorities.

The ACLU has been at the forefront of the struggle to prevent the entrenchment of a surveillance state by challenging the secrecy of the government’s surveillance and watchlisting practices; its violations of our rights to privacy, free speech, due process, and association; and its stigmatization of minority communities and activists disproportionately targeted by surveillance."