The NSA helps to protect people and the information they share on the internet. It also helps to assure the country's safety by keeping military information secret and exposing other countries' secrets in turn. According to MIT Technology Review, this is a cause of some concern. Their article mentions how the code of ethics for computer scientists mentions trustworthiness and honesty as well as respecting the privacy of others. Very clearly, the NSA violates these, in addition to the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Ed Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, discusses this violation of American rights in this statement.
The NSA breaks this code constantly, and they think they can get away with it because they are part of the government. That isn't how justice works. Based on documents that all Americans, whether in the government or not, are expected to obey, this agency has broken the law. They can try to justify it however they want, but at some point, justice will be served.
It's not about "justice" that comes after the criminal is caught. They see it as more about "the greater good". If they can prevent another 9/11, they feel it's worth the cost. Does it matter if they know you secretly buy "teletubby" videos if they don't let the information out, but catch the guy ordering ricin and stop him from putting it in the water supply of New York? Snowden also broke several laws when he divulged the program as well as many others. Why should he get a pass?
ReplyDeleteFiguring out who is in the wrong in the instance of the NSA is hard. Ethically the NSA is in the wrong for taking information from the public that was meant as private. This information was gathered without our knowledge or consent, no matter how they tried to justify it, ethically they were in the wrong. Snowden brought this to light and in doing so broke many laws, breaking the law is wrong. The NSA and Snowden both broke some kind of rule or rules, figuring out which was worse and who deserves the most punishment is not as black and white as many are trying to make it. There is a lot of information on this topic that we don't know which makes it hard for us to pass our judgement in an educated way.
ReplyDeleteI honestly believe what Snowden did was morally and ethically right. Whats not right is for the government to be non-transparent to "We the People"; even if it was for the "greater good". It was radicals that founded this country and it's radicals like Mr. Snowden that allow us as Americans to see how far our government has strayed from the constitution. Sure, Snowden may have betrayed the NSA, but it was for the "greater good" of the people right? In all honesty one persons ethics and morals may not be the same as another persons and thats okay. It's good for Americans to differ on issues; disagreement is what founded this nation after-all.
ReplyDeleteI think what Snowden did gave the country more good than it did bad. That is not to say the way in which he did it was not unethical. I think the way he leaked the information he did was wrong because of all the harm it did. It is his responsibility to leak that information in a way that is in line with his goals, and i think he did not accomplish this. He said it was the guardians responsibility to control what they publish. While this is true in some sense, I believe it was his responsibility to control what he leaked to the guardian.
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