Is Surveillance a Detrimental Aspect to Society?

In the year of 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the entire world that National Security Agency has been spying on civilians. He revealed that the NSA collects information by secretly tapping into their phone data and storing it into their collection of metadata. This topic has been controversial and trending throughout the future years. Unless everybody is comfortable of being watched, surveillance should not be used as a police device.

Sometimes, individuals interpret information differently than others. One could render it as either a positive or negative aspect. However, how do we know if we are going to far as to accusing them of something false? In 2012, a college teenager, Harold Wayne Hadley, was arrested and held on a $20,000 bail just because his note of passing a “bomb”. When somebody stumbled upon this note, he had Hadley reported which lead to the automatic involvement of the police. What the police found though was that there was no bomb planted anywhere inside the school. It turns out that instead of “passing a bomb in the library” he actually was expressing his joy of flatulence. This misinterpretation of data led to the false punishment of this teenage boy who was supposed to graduate in May his year.

Other people view surveillance as a benefit to society due to the “safety” they receive. One might say that by having the police privately investigate civilians it may lower the crime rate. This prediction can be proven true, however, there is a flaw in this procedure. According to the Fourth Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” By tapping into our personal messages and collecting information from our phone data without consent from the person himself, they are violating the Fourth Amendment.

In our current society harbors an environment filled with surveillance. Just like in George Orwell’s book: 1984, we are living in a world where every movement and action we make is being surveyed by higher beings. Right now, we our freedom is being compressed due to this surveillance. I believe that in order to change this problem, we should let our higher forces know that they are violating the constitution by doing what they do and how it is ethically wrong. Wouldn’t you want to live a world where you feel most comfortable in knowing that you’re not being spied on?