In today’s world, the chief doctrine that drives all kinds of surveillance is national security. The public is pedaled with a fear of security into allowing the abuse of their data. EFF is currently engaged in a legal battle against NSA for its use of wiretapping methods. And yet, new surveillance methods, used by the U.S. government, have been uncovered.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has been actively raising voice against such methods by security agencies which infringed the basic rights of the U.S. citizens. Among these is warrantless wiretapping which NSA has been making use of since the Bush era.

The agency has allegedly been collaborating with AT&T to tap into the wireless traffic and keep track of all the outgoing telephone calls, together with other user data. EFF has tried to cite this as an essential infringement of user privacy.

NSA and the government have, as usual, tried to hype up the entire thing by claiming that they can’t reveal relevant information which is integral to national security. EFF has rebuffed that claim and has demanded the case to be continued. The Judge recently heard the arguments of both parties as to why should the case proceed and has yet to decide whether or not it should.

While EFF wages war on that front, another terrible surveillance privilege has recently been accorded to National Counterterrorism Center. As the name suggests, the Center is meant to breach user privacy and monitor them in an Orwellian manner, all in the name of security.

The government has now granted new privileges to the Center, allowing it to keep data bout innocent citizens for up to five years during which, the data will be manipulated, analysed  cross-checked against different databases and even shared with foreign agencies.

To top it off, this data comprises of many databases, from flight records to casino lists and a lot more. This, and similar other surveillance tactics have been and continue to be used on American public without their explicit consent. The government keeps rolling them out in silence which, in itself, is a despicable practice. The slippery slope of privacy breach that the security agencies have started on may soon lead to more Draconian surveillance laws if not curbed now.

Courtesy: Arstechnica/Slate

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