Digital Story: Why should you care if the NSA spies on you if you have nothing to hide?

The Story of David Mery

What actually happened?

David Mery, from London, was in a London train station one day. That day, Mery was walking down the steps and avoiding all eye contact. He wore glasses, as you can see above, due to an eye infection that week. Mery was at the station to meet up with his girlfriend and while he was waiting for his train, he sat down and checked his phone. Then, he took an article about wikipedia out from his jacket. As Mery's train was arriving he was surrounded by the police. They handcuffed him and told him they were doing this because of the safety of the the Terrorism Act. They told him they stopped him because  on the CCTV system the police suspected suspicious behavior. Also, they said he was arrested because he did not look at the police men when he entered the gate. Police then said they arrested him because they believed his jacket was "too warm" and that his bad was unusually bulky. The final reason they handcuffed Mery was because he looked at his phone and took a piece of paper out of his jacket.

The previous day, was the coldest day in July in over 20 years. Mery's bag consisted of a laptop. His eye infection was the reason that he did not make contact and could it be possible that the guy was just having a bad day? Mery was then considered a terrorist for 8 years and after he was proven innocent, the government still kept his information in their files such as interviews and background information. Mery was innocent and they had no right to keep these files.

What does this have to do with anything?

The question has been rised, Why should I be concerned if the NSA is spying on me? I don't have anything to hide or it does not bother me would be a common answer to this question. Sounds like a reasonable answer if you do not have anything to hide but in this instance neither did David Mery. The man's life was ruined and he did not even do anything.

The average American commits three felonies a day whether they realize that it's a crime or not. Prohibiting the NSA to spy on you gives them a reason to find these mistakes that you have done. Someone who knows everything about you can destroy you and that is exactly what they did to Mery. They set him up. A society where a government can pick out an innocent individual to crush is more dangerous than a terrorist in the middle east.

What Can I do about it?

In this type of environment it doesn't seem like there is a whole lot that you can do. As of recently, a bill to prohibit these types of actions was vetoed and this bill is what is going to change all of this. The way to change all of this is to participate in this act and not let this go any further. That is why I am strongly encouraging you to email your representatives as I have and tell them what you believe in. Email your representatives

Stand up for what is right and make a difference.

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Annotated Bibliography

Engelhardt, Tom. "Surveillance: It's Worse Than You Think." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 June 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-engelhardt/surveillance-worse-than-you-think_b_5533215.html

In this article, Edward Snowden tells us about how surveillance is much worse than we think it is. Snowden elaborates and tells us that the more smart technology that we put in our homes, the more the government knows us. This is a scary issue that is really getting out of hand.

"Guy Benson - BREAKING: Massive Government Surveillance Program Exposed, All Americans Affected." Townhall.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/06/06/oh-my-massive-government-surveillance-program-exposed-all-americans-affected-n1614916

This article explains that this project has been going on for seven years and that this has been a problem for longer than we have realized. "They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type." A career intelligence officer created a powerpoint and used this quote in it. This right here shows that Snowden was successful by releasing the information that he did.

"Trapwiresurveillancesystemexposedleak." Www.theguardian.com. N.p., 13 Aug. 2012. Web.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/13/trapwire-surveillance-system-exposed-leak

This article was released over two years ago and reading it just now is shocking. This article claims that the US Department of Homeland Security spent $832,000 to put these surveillance cameras in Washington DC and Seattle. I don't think that this is an issue. I think that there is a CCTV surveillance that analyzes peoples face to see if they are going to commit a crime or not is concerning.

Digital Story Proposal

Digital Story Proposal

Surveillant  Issues

Today, there is no bigger luxury to our lives than technology. How much do we know about this technology though? Do we know the possibilities that occur within technology. We have no idea and its quite frightening actually. I was unaware of this issue until it was discussed in class. I knew that there are security issues and that you could be tracked but I wasn't aware that our every movement was being tracked. 

Some may say that this is a good thing. I can see where those people are coming from. It has it's perks such as finding fugitives and illegal/harmful stuff that is occurring. It can save lives and defiantly be put to some good use if used the right way. That is the question though: Is it being used the right way? Is it right for the government to be able to see everything we do or is that a violation to our amendments?

It was brought up in class that Abraham Lincoln would go through people's email, read what they were writing, and this is how he learned to read. Is this any different than what our government is doing know with security issues. In a way, I think it is. I think that him doing that did not deal a great deal of harm to anyone and probably gave him some advantages and is why he is one of the most liked presidents. I think that the surveillant issues now are a little excessive and that something has to be done on them. A bill was vetoed about the strickening  of this issue. Obviously people don't think that this is that great of an issue if it got vetoed.

The crazy thing is that we thought that we were the only country in the world that was being watched this closely by our government. It turns out we were wrong. Snowden claims that New Zealand is under close surveillance as well. Although New Zealand government denies these claims. It just makes you wonder, how much does the government do that we have no idea of?

The government also claims that they are doing this to keep tabs on terrorism after 9/11. However, in the past seven years, there has only been one case that that they have realized before it even happened. The government was aware of the Tsarnaev brothers from the Boston Bombing but didn't keep close eyes on them. 

Annotated Bibliography

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-edward-snowden-new-zealand-mass-surveillance-20140915-story.html

In this article, Snowden talks about how New Zealand is also under strict surveillance and that there every move is being watched as well. The New Zealand government since has denied these claims but Snowden tells the populous that the New Zealand government is lying just like the US government did. This article was uploaded in September 2014 so it is fairly recent.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/10/20/edward-snowden-and-lawrence-lessig

In this article, Snowden's main point is that the government says that they are doing this to protect us and to keep terrorism down, but in the past seven years, only one call has led to an actual terroristic threat. Snowden claims that it is impossible to be able to catch this guy because "hay is continually being dumped" on these people.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/15/un-investigator-report-condemns-mass-surveillance/

This article tells about how the UN is taking matters into its own hands and it has said that this is illegal to do. Article 17 in the covenant states that individuals are allowed to post stuff for other individuals without state interference. It also states that these messages will be read by the intended recipients only which we now understand is not occurring.

Codes of Gender: Group Project

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200468

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200470

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200474

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200476

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200484

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200485

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200488

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200490

http://blabberize.com/view?id=1200492

Final Project Consideration

Human Trafficking

After doing some research, I now know how big this human trafficking project occurring now is. The industry brings in more money then Nike, Starbucks, and Google combined. I still can't wrap my mind around this statistic. It's completely absurd and I can't even begin to image that much money. It is truly disgusting what is taking place in not only other countries but in the United States. I definitely think that this is something that more people need to be more aware about. The more people that are aware the less abducting happens and then not only is the public informed on this uprising issue, but also this helps to prevent it. I would really like to look into this more and further my research into this business because it is really mind blowing to me. I would like to really be well educated on this subject and then, maybe one day in the future, be able to save even one persons life and prevent this from happening to one person. It happens to millions every year, but to be able to save a life by just being informed on this topic would be awesome.

 I think that our entire class should be educated on this topic because it could really pay off in the long run. Not only by my groups presentation but they should look into it for themselves because there is a lot more to it that cannot be described in a single presentation. Because of the reason outbreak in this industry, everyone should know about this topic.

Literature Review

Literature Review

The reason I am talking about this is because this is not an issue that has always been like this. In the past 10 years the numbers have started to roar and we must raise awareness before it is too late. Between 2008 and 2012 there has been a 259% call increase to the NHTRC (National Human Trafficking Resource Center). The numbers are really starting to get out of hand and its scary. In the past 5 years there have been 9298 unique cases of human trafficking. 

As you can see, in the past 6 years there isn't one single state that human trafficking hasn't affected. Some more than others but this is really an issue that is concering. The reason that this type of behavior occurs is because there isn't too much of a risk to it and there is a very high reward in pay. The way we eliminate this is we start cracking down laws and make this a priority to fix because it is on the verge of getting to the point of no return.  It seemed as if this type of behavior was only occurring over seas but we now know that we are officially concerned with this issue and raising awareness is the first step. 

Basically, our groups plan is to compose questions and answers about human trafficking. We will go around campus and ask random students about human trafficking to get a general consensus on what people know about human trafficking. I assume that people won't know to much and the information that they find out about human trafficking will be very interesting,

http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview/human-trafficking-trends