An Analytical Essay on-Foreign and government Surveillance
creates privacy Issue
A Coursework of Information
Technology Ethics and Principles
Abstract-: Ethics and principles are the backbone of any
organization, field or any workplace. This is only the ethics which brings the trust
and respect. Like any other Industry our Information Technology Industry is also respected by following the
code of ethics. The IT Ethics is an approach how the
professionals should make decisions considering social and professional
concern. This approach depends upon three factors, firstly it is the own individual‘s
behaviour, secondly it is informal code of conduct at working place and thirdly
the exposure to the formal code of conduct. Here in this essay we are going to
analyse the Foreign and government Surveillance that create privacy Issue for
civilians. Surveillance is very important to ensure the safety of civilians, as
we all are experiencing at present the terrorist are more technical these days
the we expect, but if the Surveillance is intruding the privacy of an
individual then it hurts. Now in this essay we are going to analyse the need of
technical Surveillance, the privacy line it should not cross, then we are going
to consider the effects of intruding in privacy by Surveillance.
Keywords- Surveillance, Privacy, Code of
Ethics, Australian Law of Surveillance, International Impact, Foreign Policy,
Right To Privacy, Digital Age
Introduction-: At present we are living in a Surveillance
Society. The Surveillance Society Scholars like Clive Norris, David Lyon and
Gary Armstrong are focusing and are working to bring the attention of the
masses for the development of a strong Surveillance Society David Lyon (1994) states-“Michel Foucault’s
celebrated, and contentious, historical studies of surveillance and discipline
had appeared that mainstream social theorists began to take surveillance
seriously in its own right”. David
Murakami Wood (2003, 235) emphasizes that “For Surveillance Studies, Foucault
is a foundational thinker and his work on the development of the modern
subject, in particular Surveillir ET Punir (translated as Discipline and
Punish), remains a touchstone for this nascent trans disciplinary field.” First
we are going to elaborate what is Surveillance, It is the process when our
government or foreign agency collect the records of phone number, E-mails and other information
of civilians through Internet technology
and other communication technology to have an eye or monitoring on citizens to ensure the safety
of the country and whole region. National Identity scheme, the website cookies,
the royalty program information, total health screening and no fly list are all
example of Surveillance. This helps to be better connected and to be ensure to
have better facility. Using the GPRS Service to find the location and way are
some benefits of this service. Today we are living in a Surveillance society,
we can find cameras controlled by computers in public places, and this ensures
safety and also helps in investigation and other requirements for further use. Surveillance
is conducted now days by every country under the guidelines of their Cyber Laws
nationally as well as internationally. Jean
Baullidiard states (2007). ““The same goes for Discipline and
Punish, with its theory of discipline, of the ‘panoptic’ and of ’transparency’
”.
Mass Surveillance
is very useful to ensure the safety of peoples, to have security control
against terrorism, to have a control on child Pornography and protecting Child
rights as well Human Rights too .Australian
Government has also a well-planned program for national Surveillance,
the Australian national Authority
collect information from Own Developed Agency , Google, Telstra and Optus. According to the
report of Google the Data rate for Surveillance by Australian government increases
by 20% every year.
The Surveillance
is good practice but there are many drawbacks also, firstly here the
information gathered is stored for long duration, here the risk of being stolen
away, also it can be misused by various peoples, they can copy the data and can
do manipulation in it... This is
completely an intruding in somebody’s life Secondly here the main issue is that the person of whose information is being gathered
is not being aware, there is no
transparency of what information is been
guarded and which information is kept transparent., overall is also not made clear which information is being
tracked and which information is being shared. Now due to globalization the
information gathered is also used by foreign government. The same process happens for Australia too,
even The Australian government also collects information to transfer it to
other countries. At present there is no system which can accurately check the
transfer of data to the foreign countries internationally. Somehow there are
Cyber Laws but violation of laws is also a big practice. The secret collection
of data creates confusion, paranoia and suspicion among peoples. Another
question arises of the accountability, to the freedom, to the use of services,
the mobility and social justice.
At present people feel due to these highly technical environment that there is
a spy over them every moment. Another big argument always coming up is the use
of cameras in public places, the issue is what the limit is so that privacy of
an individual cannot be hurt. As a consumer our financial statements are viewed
by authorities to check the fraud cases, to ensure accountability but other
companies who do market survey, promotion use the information . Another big
question arises how the Surveillance is conducted and the information collected
is grouped and represented by the call centre. Digital images collected in
these surveys have also big risk of manipulation. Due to these problems people has started
putting petition against the excessive Surveillance in every section of lives.
Another big fact is Surveillance is like two face of a coin, it is useful and
another hand threat to privacy both.
We all have observed that crime-rate has
decreased in those places where CCTV Cameras are installed but similarly our
information silently do pass to other International Authorities. The main purpose of Surveillance is to bring
a disciplinary approach in collecting the records. A very interesting Survey
worldwide has come out that due to the practicing of the Surveillance through
traffic control of the use of internet at working place about one fourth of
Employees has to loose there job as they were found guilty of misusing internet,
E-Mail services, phones, indulging in non- work related web sites (Pornographic,
games, social Websites) at their work place. At present companies use software’s
to track the data content, keyboard
stroke , spywares to have an eye on the employee working status, they also
continuously also monitor on social websites about their employees what they
are writing about their company or they are passing information to the rival
companies. Same observation is done by
national as well International
Authorities to monitor views and information against them. Every country
spends a big amount of expenditure to perform the Surveillance. So obviously it
puts impact on the country’s economy, so it is very essential to practice this ethically.
Some form of Surveillance has always been there out. In 2013 about 500
Australian authors including five Nobel Prize winner filed the petition against
current cue Surveillance System and demanded Amendment in the current policies.
In Australia the privacy law advocates for the systematic storage of data, infect
it goes to two years to clear any violation, setting cases in court and many
other hassles so Australians definitely want a better perspective than present.
Conclusion-:
The main objective of this essay on Foreign
and government Surveillance creates privacy Issue was to analyse the pros and
cons of Surveillance at present. It was a theoretical approach with
illustrative examples initiated from abstract to the concrete stage. Well
Australian government has made cyber laws to protect the privacy of the people,
according to the present law any authorized agency without conformation can
collect and store any individuals detail, can tap phones, can access Internet
information , violating these rights one can go to court for justice. Well there are laws world- wide but the main
concern again is on the own individuals ethics, we as a part of society has a
moral duty to work for a better Surveillance Society, by discussing the pros
and cons it is clear we are living in a digital age, our life surround these
digital resources, it has to be we who have to be honest and most importantly
strict about our own privacy rights. Criticising the system has never been a solution,
the solution is to find the way, to get united for this cause. Most important
requirement at this stage is the need of bringing awareness, learning to be better
member of the society. This was a simple approach according to the student perspective,
Surveillance is indeed a vast area and can be elaborated in wider approach,
many other issues can be analysed.
