Reading 06


            Based on the readings and my own prior knowledge of the Edward Snowden case, I view Snowden as a hero. Even though I do believe that the United States should have a surveillance program, I think that that way in which it was completely unknown to the public prior to this leak makes Snowden’s actions honorable.
            In order to release what he knew to the public, Edward Snowden gathered information regarding surveillance activities that the NSA was conducting. The 2016 film Snowden portrays this with Snowden secretly downloading data from his NSA facility onto a very small memory card and hiding it within a Rubik’s Cube. He was able to pass through the intense security leaving the facility because none of the guards thought to check his Rubik’s Cube for stolen material. Snowden then leaves the United States and heads to Hong Kong where he lives in a hotel and provides the information to media sources. The media sources then go public with the information Snowden provided them. The information that was leaked revealed that the NSA had been collecting data from text messages, phone calls, and all other forms of internet communication between individuals.
            While I do believe that at any organization it is illegal for an employee to “steal” information, I feel as if Snowden’s actions were ethically and morally acceptable. We live in a country in which we have the right to privacy, and in this situation, the NSA was violating United States citizens’ privacy by collecting this data on them without their knowledge. I believe that we, as citizens of the United States, have the right to know if we are being watched or listen to by our government. That being said, I would support a mass scale surveillance program given that we were given some notification that it was going on. I value not only my, but everyone in our country’s security more than my privacy.
            To my understanding, I believe that Snowden’s actions were beneficial to citizens of the United States. As mentioned above, citizens of the United States have a right to privacy and unknowingly having their conversations listened to is clearly a violation of that right. The readings mention that while the program that Snowden leaked was in full affect, not one terrorist attack was caught and stopped. In that sense, the restoration of our right to privacy outweighs the loss of security, as the security aspect of the program, in a sense, did not achieve its goal. As I have stated before, I would support a mass surveillance program as I value security over privacy as long as the public was made aware of what type of surveillance was going on. Going along with that, part of the reason I would support such a program is because I have no reason to hide any of my conversations from the government. It both amazes me and frightens me that technology enables to do these amazing things. I still have a hard time understanding that I can communicate with someone on the other side of the globe with little to no delay, and the fact that the government can essentially listen to or read every word I speak or write respectively during that conversation is mind boggling.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project 02

One of the most important things that I have learned throughout my life and especially the job search process is the importance of first impressions. It is important to note that not all first impressions are made when you meet someone face to face for the first time; recruiters or those reviewing your job application will immediately cross you off their list if your resume does not satisfy what they are looking for. While it is obviously important that your skill set and other requirements such as GPA and experience to match, I would argue that the layout and presentation of the information on your resume is more important. One career advisor once told me that, during her role as a talent recruiter, if she was reviewing resumes and she came to one that was not easily readable and was hard to follow, she wouldn’t even bother to look at the applicant’s name, she would place the resume directly in the “NO” pile. Continuing with the conversation I had with that same advisor, she also str
Read more

Reading 01

I believe that there are two distinct definitions of the word hacker, one that applies to those within the computer science community and one used by those who are not. While, as mentioned in the article “The Word ‘Hacker',” individuals in the programming community generally have a positive outlook on the word “hacker,” while members of the general public have a more sinister understanding of the word. Those not familiar with computer science and with the role programmers or hackers play typically view hackers as only being those who are committing crimes, violating privacy, lack ethics, and are harming our world in the end. While it is certainly true that there are many programmers who use their skills in a detrimental and adverse way, many of those within the technology community aspire to use their hacking to enable our world to be more efficient, secure, and productive. It is often over-looked by the general public that in order to stop a criminal hacker, often times someone m
Read more

Introduction

Hi, I am Rylan, a senior Economics Major and Computing & Digital Technologies Minor living in Duncan Hall. I transferred to Notre Dame prior to my sophomore year here as a part of the Holy Cross-Notre Dame Gateway Program. Our group of 20 students were only the second to be accepted into that new arrangement where we were guaranteed acceptance as a transfer if, as a freshman, we achieved a certain grade point average in our classes both at Holy Cross and at Notre Dame. It was a stressful, but rewarding, year and I am so glad I persisted. The friends that I have made and the experiences I have been through thus far have been amazing.   I am from Lake Forest, Illinois, north of Chicago where I spend most of my free time playing golf or running, and following the World Champion Chicago Cubs. Throughout my childhood, I grew up loving numbers and statistics, calculating distances, analyzing relationships, thinking about how things work, and I always knew I wanted to do something that
Read more