Phone Tapping

Listening in
There has been a lot of talk about the government phone tapping scandal in the last year. I agree that is was a terrible thing to do and not tell anyone about it. On the other hand I can kind of see why they did it and I think there are definitely two sides to every story.

When it Started
Throughout the years there has been phone tapping scandals throughout the world, beginning in 1890 with the invention of the first telephone recorder and up to the present day US government recordings. Owen Fiss wrote in “Even in a Time of Terror”  that in 1934 congress passed a law for it to be illegal to  tap any conversation between unknowing parties. In 2001, following 9/11, George W. Bush called for a “War on Terror”; once he called for this the NSA could tap phone calls. They were listening for buzz words like “bombs" and other potentially dangerous words.

The main debate about this subject is whether or not the NSA should be able to listen or whether it should be against the law. I feel like they should be able to listen to our phone calls if they are only listening for are buzz words. Anything else they hear should be kept secret and the recordings erased. However, if they are listening to entire conversations without a reason, I think that goes against the War on Terror policy. In my opinion the only reason that they should have for listening is if there are a known terrorist or associated with one, mentally unstable, or if they are looking up incriminating affairs online like “how to make bombs”, etc.. Sean Kerner writes that the NSA can look through the camera on your phone and computer to see what you are doing. If they are doing this spying through electronics I do not agree with it and it goes way over the line.

My Side
I feel that if the NSA wants to listen to people’s conversations, there is nothing wrong with that. If you are doing nothing wrong and the conversations they are listening to are not being released into the public you have nothing to lose.