Essay on Surveillance of an individual raises moral, ethical and legal questions by Shivangi Rajani</titel> <meta name="description" content="Surveillance is monitoring of the behavior, activities, or information, usually of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them. 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The effects of surveillance have positive as well as negative aspects. Surveillance is very useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and monitor threats, and prevent criminal activity. </p> <p> On the other hand, it severely triggers the privacy and freedom of an individual. Many civil rights and privacy groups have expressed concern that by allowing surveillance of citizens; we may end up in a mass surveillance society, with extremely limited personal freedom.</p> <b>Types of Surveillance</b> <p>Surveillance of communications is ubiquitous, and it severely undermines citizens' ability to enjoy a private life, freely express and enjoy the fundamental human rights. There are many ways of surveillance. </p>  <script language="javascript">yah_ad("");</script>  <p><b>Computer Surveillance:</b>Computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data and traffic on the Internet. Google, the world's most popular search engine scans the content of emails of users of its Gmail web mail service, to create targeted advertising based on what people are talking about in their personal Emails. This definitely hampers the private affairs of users and creates moral, ethical and legal insecurity as it violates the right to privacy, a basic human right.</p> <p><b>Phone Surveillance:</b> The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines is widespread. Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location of a mobile phone that a person carrying it can be easily determined even when the phone is not used. This can be done, using a technique known as multilateration, to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The legality of such techniques of surveillance has been questioned. </p> <div class="hidden-md hidden-sm hidden-lg" align="center"><script>google_ad_client='ca-pub-5304172181104265';google_ad_slot='5772081466';google_ad_width=234;google_ad_height=90;</script><script type='text/javascript' src='http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js'></script><br></div> <p><b>Video Camera Surveillance:</b> Video cameras are also used for surveillance which serves the purpose of observing a particular area. The development of centralized networks of CCTV cameras watching public areas, linked to computer databases of people's pictures and identity are able to track people's movements, and identify whom they have been with. The Civil rights groups have argued that it present a risk to civil liberties.</p> <p><b>Social Network Surveillance:</b> Another common form of surveillance is to create maps of social networks based on data from social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter etc. It is from such social network sites, personal interests, friendships and affiliations, beliefs, activities and thoughts are extracted out by those indulging in acts of surveillance. Each of these acts threatens both an individual's freedom of expression and their right to maintain a private life and private communications. </p> <p>Declining costs of technology and data storage have created incentives for conducting surveillance. New technologies have been adopted and surveillance techniques have proliferated. This has enabled deep intrusion into an individual's private areas, threatening to blur the line of demarcation between the private and the public spheres. Individuals are no longer able to even know that they have been subjected to surveillance.</p> <B>Case of NSA leaks </B> <p> Edward Joseph Snowden, an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor disclosed classified NSA documents to several media outlets, initiating the NSA leaks, which reveal operational details of a global surveillance apparatus operated by the United States working with its Five Eyes partners. According to Snowden, his "sole motive" for leaking the documents was "to inform the public that what is done in their name is done against them." </p>  <script language="javascript">yah_ad("");</script>  <p>Generally, legislation has not kept pace with the changes in technology, creating gaps that deprive individuals of protection and allow for the extra-legal use of surveillance. Thus legal safeguards have to be rolled out to check such unethical practices of surveillance by the government or any other organization. In such legislation the centrality of the right to privacy to democratic principles and the free flow of speech and ideas must be emphasized. </p> <p>Privacy and free expression go hand in hand, each an essential prerequisite to the enjoyment of the other. To freely form and impart ones political, religious or ethnical beliefs one needs an autonomous, private space free from interference, from the government, private sector or other citizens. </p> <P align="right"><B>- Shivangi Rajani </B> <div class="clearfix"></div> <div align='center'><div class='hidden-md hidden-sm hidden-lg'><script async src='http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js'></script><ins class='adsbygoogle' style='display:block' data-ad-client='ca-pub-5304172181104265' data-ad-slot='6833563061' data-ad-format='auto'></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script></div></div> <div class="clearfix"></div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript">right("");</script> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript">bottom("");</script> </div> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="../../js/bootstrap.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../js/jquery.mmenu.min-e.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function() { $('nav#menu').mmenu({dragOpen: true, position:'right', direction:'left',}); }); </script>  <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-34341207-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 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