Article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Article review - Essay Example All these machines are used for surveillance, tracking and identification purposes. They offer many benefits from efficiency to speed to strong analytical power. However, they continue to sacrifice more on the right to privacy. This paper discuses the issue of privacy verses individual safety. The patriotic act is an act that is supposed to protect innocent American citizens from terrorist attacks. It gives the law enforcement agencies all the power necessary to use any means and tools at their disposal to investigate drug trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime. This act gives the law the right to use surveillance in their investigation against terrorism This act also give different government agencies to share among themselves pertinent and relevant information (Bennett, 2007). Under this act, and the bank secrecy act, the FBI and special agents from IRS are allowed to access information from the records of financial institutions to investigate and monitor any activities that s eem suspicious without alerting the financial institution (David, 2009). Many argue that public surveillance help in the solving of crimes committed, and this they say is far much valuable than the intrusion by the government. Senior citizens tend to support the governments move in public surveillance (Locker, 2008). ... This surveillance does not take place in the open but takes place in private with no or little oversight by the courts by the public or the congress. Through this power, to collect massive details of private conversations and data, the government security agencies like the FBU and the NSA apply the use of computer programs to make predictions and likes about the behavior of people (Lyon & Zureik, 2006). The government is able to compile dossiers about innocent citizens though the use of sensitive data. This data is stored in government databases, and the names of many Americans end up inaccurate and bloated in the watch lists, which determine if the individual can fly on commercial airlines or renew passports. Dragnet surveillance undermines individual rights to privacy and the freedom of speech, religion and association (Penenberg, 2001). The issue of privacy and surveillance has been a hot topic for debate in the media houses. The government and a large percentage of the citizens a re not on the same terms when it comes to this issue. The government argues that it is its duty to protect the citizens of the country against any threat, be it domestic or foreign. The most effective means of ensuring that this duty is performed is through the use of surveillance to predict behaviors and notice communication patters that may lead to the averting of a terrorist attack of an incident that will infringe on individual security or the security of the nation at whole (Wright & Hert, 2012). Security has been increased at the airports due to the threat that this industry faces from terrorists. This industry has employed the use of new and the latest technology that include the use of biometric scanners. These are machines that are used for recognition purposes. They can