Unit 7 db#2 + responses

The amount and accuracy of the information that the government varies from one person to the next. Someone who spends a lot of time online, sharing on social media, creating accounts at different services, and/or communicating with friends and relatives overseas will leave a much more clear trail of data than someone who shuns Facebook and takes proactive steps to protect their privacy. Government employees must undergo rigorous background checks, while someone getting paid under the table at a local restaurant can fly under the radar. Aside from official government entities, third parties often comply with government requests for information. These include big tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, all of which were shown by Edward Snowden to have cooperated with the NSA’s spying efforts. And while we’re thinking about Edward Snowden, recall that he was a private contractor at the NSA at the time and not a government employee. Contractors and private companies can collect information on behalf of the US government as well. Attempting to cover all the information that the US government knows about any one person quickly becomes overwhelming and full of caveats. With all of this in mind, it’s clear we need to narrow down our parameters. 

Citizen surveillance: What does the US Government know about you? Privacy.net. (2019, July 4). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://privacy.net/us-government-surveillance-spying-data-collection/.

One of the ways the government is collecting data is through the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The government is allowed to track your location without any warrant. The US Customs and Border Protection has the right to investigate any citizen’s electronic device after arriving from an outside country. If you refuse to abide by the law, your electronic device can be taken away for up to two weeks. And if you are not a US citizen refusing can give them the right to deport you from the country. On of the advantages of the Government collecting data is that they are able to track if a policy has worked and how they can do better. For example, the Las Vegas police uses historic crime data, thanks to this data they can predict the areas where crime is more likely to happen. Data collected can also be misused illegally. For example, facial recognition data could be used to single out protestors, all based on how they look, their race and skin color.

Santani, S. (2020, July 21). The Fight for Personal Data - iSchool: Syracuse University. Retrieved from https://ischool.syr.edu/the-government-vs-citizens-the-fight-for-personal-data/