Surveillance: A Double Edged Sword
As citizens of a free nation our constitution has granted us certain basic rights. The expectation from preservers of law and order is that they will help us to exercise and enjoy these powers. Security from threats is another expectation that we demand from the keepers of law. Obviously, in order to provide us security from outside threat the law keepers need to exercise some special powers and the basics of that is “Surveillance”.
Surveillance in ordinary language means “the close inspection of a suspect”. To conduct the Surveillance there are different ways & most commonly used ways include the monitoring of telephone records, spy camera, email and newly and most recent way is through digital media. Now the question arises that if surveillance is being conducted does it not comprise with the basic rights for national that is the “privacy”?
The NSA and other agencies has produced some occurrences that clearly shows that it has some time stepped over the line and violated the privacy of nationals. The age of digital media justifies this yet people have other view. This makes the Surveillance a double edged sword hanging on the citizens. They can’t deny it yet they can’t take it.
The problem
In age of technological development you can never be sure that who is keeping a eye on us. The security agencies give a valid explanation that it is their duty to provide the security to the nation and so they need to perform these actions. The citizens can’t even oppose that because if it’s a matter of national security but obviously they feel that some guidelines need to be set. The Law makers intervened in this matter and addressed the issue by setting up some guidelines that need to be followed yet the studies by various reformers shows that sometime these laws are kept at bay and the actions are performed which are against the law.
The recent incidents of data leakage from the office of security agencies is just some examples which put the surveillance team in question box yet the legal process is slow to take any action and in most of the cases the purpose who is being watched would never know that his data has been compromised and leaked.
Benefits vs. Disadvantages
The mass surveillance over the years has been cited as a strong answer to security threats and there are millions of examples that due to it the hundreds of attacks and crimes were stopped on paper. The agencies are heavily dependent on this and their intelligence run on the technological advancement received if we talk about the advantages it carries; millions of examples can be cited and nobody can deny it. The benefits are enjoyed not only in security point of view but also in the growth of other important aspects. Yet like all the things there are certain disadvantages also.
The issues liking leaking of data and personal life are a thing of past now thus it deprived citizens of the basic rights the other moral issue is that it takes off the trust of a individual from the state and makes him believe that he is not being believed and poses a threat to the society.
Whatever the case is nobody can deny that Mass surveillance is absolutely necessary to be executed yet some strict law governing the practice should be rocked in which should strike the right balance between everyone.