Increased Government Surveillance

People have always had suspicions of the government "watching them", unfortunately for these people they are stereo typically dubbed crazy or mentally ill. However there may be some truth to this paranoia as the government continues to increase their surveillance in the technological world. According to Google, the requests by government agencies to gain access to user data has dramatically increased over the past 3 years. Google began gathering data in 2009 where they recorded the number of official requests information which at that time numbered around 14,000. The latest report shows government requests for user data has exceeded 20,000, and that is just in the last 6 months. This seems to be in direct correlation with government’s requests of censorship on Google as seen in the graph below.

A common reaction by the public to this matter is referencing the fourth amendment. The fourth amendment states that "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". In addition to user data requests, the governments around the world have also begun sending requests to remove multimedia data from the internet to avoid offensive or sensitive information to be released publicly. Almost 2,000 requests to remove data from the internet have been received so far in 2012 which have affected 17,000 items. Google was the first technology company to begin releasing these statistics however, companies such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Dropbox are starting to reveal their data on this matter as well. With the added statistics from these companies, the public will be able to see a more accurate record of how private our information actually is.

Citations:

Newton, Casey. "Government surveillance continues to rise, Google says." Cnet. CBS Interactive Inc., 13 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57549055-93/government-surveillance-continues-to-rise-google-says/>.

Newman, Jared. "Google Says Government Surveillance Keeps Rising." PCWorld. N.p., 14 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2014027/google-says-government-surveillance-keeps-rising.html>.

Chou, Dorothy. "Transparency Report: Government Requests on the Rise." Google, 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/transparency-report-government-requests.html>.

Rucker, JD. "Google Transparency Report Shows That Big Brother Is Quickly Becoming a Reality." Techi Fresh Daily Technology News. Techi, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.techi.com/2012/11/google-transparency-report-shows-that-big-brother-is-quickly-becoming-a-reality/>.

Cohen, Roger. "Generals In Their Own Web." The New York Times. N.p., 15 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/opinion/roger-cohen-cia-generals-caught-in-their-own-web.html?ref=surveillanceofcitizensbygovernment>.