The Need for Privacy Over Security on the Internet

U.S. History 2 Honors

Mr. Troshane

William Situ

May 15, 2017

 Most people feel uncomfortable when they learn someone else has read their mail or

looking at their browsing history and conversations. However, what if that person claims it is

only for security purposes? The debate on how to balance security and privacy has been going on

for a long time, but especially over the last few years, where both terrorism and technology are

the most prevalent. The 9/11 attack, the closely following Patriot Act, and the Snowden leaks on

NSA surveillance are some of the events that spark and continue the debate over privacy versus

security. Mass surveillance, computer exploitation, and regulation on encryption are some ways

the U.S. have or want to increase security. On the Internet, privacy should be a higher priority

than national security because it is counterproductive, it gives too much power to the

government, and it hurts the economy.

First, sacrificing privacy to improve national security is counterproductive. It not only

fails to succeed in improving security but it diminishes individual security. Some people argue

that mass surveillance, or government spying, prevents acts of terrorism. However, Michael

German, a former special FBI agent in domestic terrorism said spying failed to stop the the

Boston Marathon bombers [in 2013] or shootings at Fort Hood [in 2009] or at an army recruiting

center in Arkansas [in 2009]. (National Debate Topic). He also pointed out that it was luck,

not spying that protected the U.S. from the Christmas Day underwear bomber [in 2009], from

the Times Square bomber [in 2010] (National Debate Topic). Aside from mass surveillance,

the NSA uses computer exploits in order to gain access to data that they would normally not be

able to have. Although the intention of this is help the government catch criminals, it fails and

even helps the criminals. In the court case United States v. Jay Michaud, Jay Michaud is

suspected to have logged into a child porn site. Instead of having a criminal in prison for
possession of child porn, they dismissed the case and let him go because the FBI was unwilling

to share their Network Investigative Technique, which uses exploits in the Tor anonymity

network (Newman). The government not sharing an exploit is useless because any criminal

found using evidence from the exploit is unable to be successfully tried. Additionally, this is

concerning for all users of Firefox, which is built on Tor, as criminal hackers could find the

flaws and maliciously exploit them while the government is keeping them secret for investigative

purposes (Newman). Although a case of Firefox users security being compromised has not

happened yet, the government exploiting a vulnerability instead of telling software developers

about it caused an event similar to what might have happened. In three days, a large cyberattack

infected 48 UK National Health Service trusts, FedEx, Telefonica, Renault and Nissan car

manufacturing plants, U.S. universities, Russian governments and Chinese ATMs, amongst

many other systems across 150 countries (Fox-Brewster, Microsoft). Users affected by the

WannaCry ransomware attack are forced to pay money within a week or lose their data

(Fox-Brewster, An). A tool made by the NSA, called EternalBlue, which exploits the

Windows file sharing protocol (Fox-Brewster, An), was leaked. EternalBlue was later

implemented in the WannaCry malware in order to spread itself (Fox-Brewster, An). Even

though there was a patch for the exploit two months earlier (Fox-Brewster, Microsoft), it

caused a lot of damage to more than just the U.S., and could have been prevented if the NSA

disclosed the bug to Microsoft instead of creating a tool for it. The cost of practicing methods

that hurt the privacy of the users, such as collecting and hoarding information useful to hackers

in the name of national security, greatly outweigh the benefits.

 Letting the government take the privacy of citizens gives too much power to the

government. A common argument against valuing privacy over national security is someone that

has done nothing bad has, nothing to hide. Most people have credit cards and medical

information that they must not share online, but even if someone truly had nothing to hide,

saying that would be agreeing to the governments violation of rights and abuse of power. First,

The First Amendment is violated when the U.S. chooses security over privacy. Because of

government surveillance, 28% [of writers] have curtailed or avoided social media activities, and

another 12% have seriously considered doing so (PEN American Center). Similarly, 1 in 6

writers has avoided writing or speaking on a topic they thought would subject them to

surveillance. (PEN American Center). This shows that government surveillance affects what

citizens say and what information they share. People also argue, This same encryption that

protects liberty, however, also can beand is beingexploited by criminals and terrorists not

only to facilitate crimes such as fraud and money laundering, but in alarmingly more cases, to

engage in political acts of violence. (Feffer). However, the creation and use of encryption

programs are a practice of the First Amendment (Feffer). Problems will arise if someone is

unable to decrypt file or text they own, and that person will be penalized even though there is

nothing wrong with using encryption. Second, the Fourth Amendment is violated because

civilians are having their privacy invaded through data collection. In the ruling of Katz v. United

States (1967) the FBI placed a recording device on a public telephone that Katz then used to

discuss illegal gambling debts. Even though the phone was public, [T]he Fourth Amendment

protects people, not places, and it is up to the individual for what is considered private

(National Debate Topic). Regardless of who the Internet belongs to, people cannot be legally
surveilled without consent, just like the U.S. was not allowed to surveill the people that used a

public phone. Lastly, some people argue that the government does not care about personal data.

However, the government often misuses, if not abuse the privacy-violating power that they are

given. There are about seven cases of misuse of SIGINT, or signal interception per day (Moyer).

Even though the NSA claims most of the misuses were unintentional (Moyer), they do not feel

the need to change the number or strengthen protection against misuse. NSA Inspector General

George Ellard published with details of 12 intentional misuses of SIGINT (Moyer). Of those 12

cases, 8 of the cases involved spying on girlfriends or spouses, and of those 8 cases, 5 people got

away by retiring or resigning (Moyer). The workers ability to get away with abuse and the

frequent misuse shows the leniency the intelligence agency has on those in power. Putting

security above privacy allows for the misuse of power and the rights of the people to be taken.

Government invasion of privacy hurts the economy. Outlawing encryption looks like it

will help help catch terrorists, but even if it would, the tradeoff is much worse. It would destroy

ecommerce, as no one in the U.S. would be able to safely or legally buy and sell, or any

transaction online. Even if there is encryption only the government can break, that will be broken

by other entities, causing damage to people and businesses. Keeping data safe would be even

more challenging and consumers may rely on companies less for keeping their data if encryption

were to be outlawed (Feffer). Companies and people depend on encryption for safety, so creating

laws restricting encryption will not work. Mass surveillance hurts companies as well. Randi

Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, argues that it causes distrust in

users which causes them to leave the platform. Randi also makes a distinction between

surveillance done by companies and surveillance done by the government. Companies sell data
to make money and improve the users experience, while the government provides no benefit for

monitoring data (Krever). Although people may disagree that companies selling data is justified,

consumers can choose who they give their information to, while most cannot choose to leave the

Internet. Zuckerberg's stance on mass surveillance is well founded because after the Snowden

Revelations, Qualcomm, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Amazon Cloud Services, Dropbox, and Cisco

reported declines in sales, and companies lost contracts with other countries (Van Buren). Also,

the U.S. tech industry was hurt as much as four percent, and U.S. companies are hurt as much as

$180 billion (Van Buren). Another way choosing national security over privacy hurts the

economy is the money that is put into data collection. According to Edward Snowden, in 2013,

$52.6 billion was spent on U.S. National Intelligence. Half of that, $25.3 billion was spent on

data collection (Grandjean). Although the amount spent on mass surveillance and data collection

is unknown, based on the amount of widespread use of the Internet and the data the government

must hold and process, this number would drop significantly without it. Even though people may

feel the cost of surveillance is worth the cost of preventing another terrorist attack, lowering the

cost will help the U.S. more. Lowering the amount of data would be useful for the U.S. as much

of the data the government collects is unused. An anonymous former NSA official said, There

are massive gaps in our ability to actually analyze data. Much of the data just sits there and

nobody looks at it (National Debate Topic). He brings up points how mass surveillance data

just stays there, making it useless and even a burden for the intelligence agencies. The

surveillance and its costs can be reduced without harming national security. Methods considered

by the government that strip privacy and increase security hurt companies and wastes money.
 National security should not be traded for privacy on the Internet because doing so

decreases security, enables government oppression, and stifles the economy. The government

trying to increase security weakens the users ability to keep data and communication safe.

Keeping data safe provides security and privacy, just like house curtains provide privacy and

safety against potential intruders. Private communication is necessary to anyone sharing

confidential information. People are hurt in many ways when the government chooses security

over privacy on technology, from data theft to human rights violations and companies are hurt

from cyberattacks to large profit losses. Some crimes are unstoppable, as people can do pretty

horrific things on their own. Whether with explosive devices, or chemicals or biological agents.

Everybody's walking around with these devastating weapons (National Debate Topic), but

depriving citizens of their privacy will not help the issue. Any attempt to undermine privacy for

security must be carefully examined by determining its ability to increase security, as well as its

impact on the economy and the people.

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