Article Analysis Essay on Government Surveillance of Citizens Raises Civil Liberty Concerns

Introduction

The article is title Government Surveillance of Citizens Raises Civil Liberty Concerns is by PBS NewsHour Extra issued on March 28th, 2018 (0935 hrs.); its title is clear and specific.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The Article's Purpose

The purpose of the article is clearly stated; it focused on the government surveillance on the US citizens' data and confidential information without their consent and analyzing the issue alongside the existing federal laws on privacy of personal information to determine its legality.

The Article's Approach

The qualitative approach was used in the article by analyzing the different primary sources that are based on the same topic to gather necessary information that will substantiate the idea brought by the topic of the article. Some of the sources included the information from the Federal Laws of US, articles from the Guardian Newspaper, alongside the sentiments from civil liberties advocates, Kate Martin of the Centre for National Security Studies, as well as Pete Williams of NBC News. The approach used in the study was suitable based on the nature of the research, though it left out some important facts about the issues discussed.

Article's Major Concerns

The objective of the article is important and it fulfills the main title mentioned. The article noted that Verizon has been feeding the National Security Administration (NSA) with data that facilitated secret tracking of phone records. That is not all, people's video, audio, email, social media, document, connection logs are being snitched. The other spying program used by BSA and FBI includes Google, Facebook and Apple data, together with the companies' credit card information. The article was very specific on the government's reaction regarding the mater, where it noted that it was adamant defending itself stating that the surveillance was lawful. The article supplemented the views of other related parties to strengthen its position, whereby, Tech companies distanced themselves from the claims. Giving one of the examples, Google noted that the impact of surveillance was insignificant than stated earlier. Furthermore, they collectively, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo, urged the government to lessen their secrecy and not to adversely jeopardize their reputation. The government arrogance over the matter sparked the attention of relating the issue to the federal law that governs the citizens' rights to have their data protected.

Article's Conclusion

The article affirmed that the government was violating the law on the citizens' data confidentiality, and concluded by analyzing the federal law alongside the mater on surveillance. The article noted that. intelligence agencies such as FBI and NSA must approach the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and obtain a warranty to be allowed to track data around the calls only, and not the calls themselves. Nothing more than that was allowed, hence making the government's action a violation of the rule of law. However, the specific section of the federal law was not mentioned for reference. Through, the article reflected on the enactment of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 back to the following the Watergate scandal, with an aim of safeguarding the American citizens from spying, before being interfered with the Patriot Act 2001, then by Bush administration.

Article's Limitation

The article could have provided the statistics and recent facts that support that pictures the spying being experienced in the US. This should also include the most affected sectors in the industry and the effects that have been brought as the result of government surveillance. Also, the article failed to establish the possible reasons that had led to government surveillance to its citizens, and how to stop the violation.

Work Cited

PBS NewsHour Extra. "Government Surveillance of Citizens Raises Civil Liberty Concerns | PBS Newshour Extra". PBS Newshour Extra, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/2013/06/government-surveillance-of-citizens-raises-civil-liberty-concerns/.