Who's Watched or Watches the Watchdogs? Part Two - Civil, or Uncivil Liberties?

ADVISORY: The following information is entirely of my own opinion and is naturally composed, therefore, of my own free will and with no outside co-ercion (sic!). This is in fact simply my chance to say my piece on the whole "national security" debate having seen "Citizenfour" and the excuses that are often used to monitor what we say or what we do!

Also, this may contain triggers for some, so please, read on with caution! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Whassup!

We're back again and I trust you found the last posting informative and worthy of your time. If not, then I'm sorry. But if you did then thank you for coming back for part two as I look into personalising what I raised in part one.

Are you ready?

Then let's do it...

My starting point for this part is to ask whether there is a clear distinction between the monitoring of Mr. Terrorist's calls/text/emails and Mr. Regular Joe, as I've called him (ED - or her lest ye be accused of gender-bias!).

So what do I think?

Yes, yes there is a clear bias simply because Mr. RJ is not actively planning on killing anyone any time soon. Why, then, do his calls/texts/emails need to be monitored?

1. he's not going anywhere; and
2. as outlined above, he has no clear intention to cause harm

Therefore, at what point do we draw the line between what is acceptable in terms of active monitoring? If we throw a general blanket over everyone, then sure, everyone is covered, but is everyone covered adequately so?

Let me explain, if everyone is monitored for suspicious posts on social media/forums etc, then that's a shedload more data to trawl through should the security forces have reason to suspect anyone under said blanket.

As I hope is clear by now, I'm not against national security being actively pursued per se, but you have to have clear lines between respecting Regular Joes' privacy or else I wonder what then for said security services? If they can know & have access to all your personal calls/emails then what will be personal in the future?

Again, who's watched or watches the watchdogs???

Having said that, how much further will one's personal freedom be eroded whilst this is allowed to continue unchecked?

Sure, there is talk of transparency and that the security services like MI5 & the NSA etc would have to show: -

1. What they are doing with the data; and
2. What they need the data for in the first place ie. proof of reasonable suspicion

It is a worrying trend, nevertheless, at the delays between such requests for transparency are present, before action is taken and that is when you get your Edward Snowden's doing what they do for civil liberty. It seems some would rather risk their future safety than let the company they work for actively monitor more closely than they need to.

Also, it appears people would rather jump ship from the security force that they represent rather than set down on paper some iron-clad rules to abide by in such data retention requests.

Now, if you are reading this and you represent one of the globe's many, many security firms employed by the government then I have nothing but respect for you. This is only and I say this with the politest of intentions, only if you stick to an acceptable code which needs to be drawn up and brought into play sooner rather than later.

Otherwise, where will we be in 5 or 10 years' time when our personal freedoms are eroded further?

We already know that freedom of speech is not as free now as it used to be because you have to take into consideration another person's feelings before you say or post things that are likely to cause offence. This is if only so as to give them fair warning that if they proceed to watch or read what you've put, then it may just upset them.

There's more that could likely be drawn out of this subject than I could put down in my observation, so rather than drag this out into another part, I will bring this to a close here with a view to maybe, some day soon, revisiting the subject.

I hope you've found it a worthwhile read and remember, without your views, I wouldn't be persisting like I am doing with this blog!

Respec'!

PS. I wasn't sure whether to redact the warning on "triggers" for this post, so have left it in as proof of fair warning. TLP.