In an ideal world, governments could offer their citizens perfect security as well as perfect privacy. However, in the real world the two can not co-exist. Providing security relies on gathering information, and it could be argued that the most important duty of a government is to protect its citizens. On the other hand, the citizens of the state expect that the government will not intrude upon their private lives. In today's world anonymity is bred behind computer screens, and the wealth of information that is held in personal computers and smartphones has the capacity to be harnessed for our public safety. The question is 'do we want to hand it over?' And if we don't, is it the duty and priority of the government to take it?
Ethics
If you don't do anything wrong then why should you care about mass surveillance?
A Study led by Elizabeth Stoycheff revealed that knowledge of mass surveillance has led to an increase in self-censorship of dissenting opinions online. The internet is part of the public domain and has become a hub to voice political opinions and in an ever more globalized society that has meant a platform for social and political change. However, if those minority groups are self-censoring then the internet has lost its neutrality as a platform and its ability to facilitate open and honest discussions, which is a huge blow to democracy.
"Every boarder you cross, every purchase you make, every call you dial, every cell tower you pass, friend you keep, article you write, site you visit ... is in the hands of a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not."
-Edward Snowden, CitizenFour
Do we have to trade in our privacy for our safety?
It seems that there are multiple answers to that question. If you turn on the news after a terrorist attack the government will justify the use of mass surveillance as a necessary tool to weed out criminals. If we delve deeper into that assertion it can be found that mass surveillance has done little to nothing in its attempts to expose terrorist plots. Mass surveillance treats all citizens as criminals and in doing so has largely failed to stop those actually committing acts of terrorism.
