Essay

1. MASS SURVEILLANCE
Surveillance is harmful since it can chill the exercise of our civil liberties and with
respect to it when we consider surveillance of people when they think, read or communicate with
others in order to make up their minds in terms of social and political issues. Intellectual
surveillance is perilous since it may cause people not to experiment new ideas (Cohen, 2015).
Many people recognize problems that arise from mass surveillance while others have no issues
with it Mass surveillance is a dangerous position to be taken by any individual who cares about
democratic value such as freedom of political affiliation, the right to privacy and freedom of
expression. It erodes intellectual freedom and social fabric that affect societies and also open
doors for illegal profiles. Being under surveillance changes the way people think, act and make
them avoid talking about the sensitive subject. Development of mutual mistrust between the state
and individuals is achieved through by monitoring citizen movement and communications.
The US national security on people information appears insatiable, it came a time in
December when President Obama's administration asked visitors for their social media account
name, and a danger was passed on by the civil liberty campaigners, such an effort was passed on
to President Trump so that visa applicants are asked to supply their social media identities over
the past five years. It is claimed that they will not be denied entry based on what they might have
said online four years ago in either of their conversation with friends. It may not be that
authoritative or intrusive as per the questions asked in the new visa forms (Hier & Greenberg,
2009). Prospective travelers may be asked all the countries they have visited in the past 15 years
and accounts on how each trip was gathered for, history of employment, children names, date of
birth, phone numbers and the email addresses they have used in their last five years. For
instance, foreigners do not vote during US election, and they are thrown into privacy bus, and the

2. National Security Agency cannot listen to your telephone, but the government does not disguise
foreigners broad snooping.
Most of the Americans (93%) want to control personal information whereas few of them
believe they are able. The majority of them say it is important to control the people who can get
their information. 9% believe they have control over the information collected about them. 6% of
the American population have confidence in the government agency that they can keep their
records very safe and secure. America has had programs to collect information on mails,
telephone calls, and other online communications as part of monitoring terrorist activities
(Velden, Kruk & Dunphy, 2015). As compared to women men have more information about
National Security Agency. 17% of Americans are concerned with surveillance concerning
communication, data, and electronics. Peoples behaviors are altered when they are reminded that
their activities are being watched by the government. For instance, those participants in the study
were first shown headlines on the fictional news about the United States which was targeting the
Islamic States in an air strike. They were therefore asked how they were feeling as they were
reminded that their responses were monitored. Most people show that they had believed that the
government would have led to their scrutiny. The study also shows that participants who are for
ideas of mass surveillance were the ones to suppress their own opinions.

3. References
Cohen, E. (2015). Mass surveillance and state control. [Place of publication not identified]:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Hier, S., & Greenberg, J. (2009). Surveillance. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Velden, D., Kruk, V., & Dunphy, N. (2015). Black transparency. Berlin: Sternberg Press.