Government surveillance has caused a huge invasion of privacy on the public, and laws and policies need to change so that innocent lives are not being watched upon without reasonable cause. ... This has caused them to receive the bulk of the attention and criticism when it comes to controversial privacy snooping among Americans, especially when leaks are revealed from the inside. ... In an article published by The Guardian, Wisconsin House Representative Jim Sensenbrenner believes the NSA has exceeded their limitations on surveillance and caused massive invasions to privacy. ... After draf...

• Word Count: 2212
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Ferdico, a former Assistant Attorney General in the State of Maine stated, "The FBI acknowledged it improperly accessed Americans' [sic] telephone records, credit reports, and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses . . . . " Safety and privacy pose controversial opinions when law manipulates either, but the Patriot Act definitely crosses the privacy line. ... No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without d...

• Word Count: 1446
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Patriot Act: For Protection or an Invasion of Privacy? The Patriot Act is a 342 page law that was written and passed, by a 98-1 vote in the U.S. Senate, and then signed into law within seven weeks of September 11th. ... On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act (USAPA) into law. ... That may be one of the most vital aspects in the law. ...

• Word Count: 821
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President Bush signed it into law on October 26, 2001, after it received little congressional review or debate. Giving almost unlimited anti-privacy powers to domestic law enforcement and international intelligence agencies, PATRIOT virtually eliminates checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that those powers were not abused. ... The 4th Amendment defends an individual's rights to privacy against unlawful tactics such as those in the Patriot Act. ... Pertaining to surveillance and an individual's right to privacy, Section 312 gives immunity to law ...

• Word Count: 835
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Two arguments that people are most passionate and vocal about are closely related, invasion of privacy and freedom of speech. ... Critics have a problem with the provision in the law in which it gives intelligence and law enforcement agencies more power to investigate. ... Besides violating well-established rights of privacy the law also threatens freedom of speech because people may choose not to read about certain topics on the internet or look at certain books in the fear of being watched by the government. ... ", upon signing the law. ... Nearly a year later more people were protesting tha...

• Word Count: 887
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

President Bush signed it into law on October 26, 2001, after it received little congressional review or debate. Giving almost unlimited anti-privacy powers to domestic law enforcement and international intelligence agencies, PATRIOT virtually eliminates checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that those powers were not abused. ... The 4th Amendment defends an individual's rights to privacy against unlawful tactics such as those in the Patriot Act. ... Pertaining to surveillance and an individual's right to privacy, Section 312 gives immunity to law ...

• Word Count: 831
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

With new issues including one's right to protect their DNA, America is only getting closer to martial law. ... Secondly, the new PATRIOT Act took away a company's right to privacy. ... This is the enacting law to allow ECHELON and the Total Information Awareness Network to break down any and all walls of privacy. ... Next, the privacy of every American citizen has been taken away. ... Privacy will never be the same. ...

• Word Count: 642
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Right To Privacy In today's society cameras appear in all kinds of places such as ATM's, department stores, and streetlights. ... Total face recognition is the next step in the privacy issue. ... Our open records and freedom of information laws will also need to me amended to take into account governmentally organized CCTV campaigns. ... The majority of the public may never be willing to give up privacy, but increasing threat of terrorism within the U.S. has caused a need for protection. ... Yet, who will ultimately decide how much privacy can be sacrificed for protectio...

• Word Count: 845
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Privacy advocate Robert Ellis Smith has described the cards as "a license to live." ... The government is able to abuse our rights by passing laws that makes it okay. ... It gave our government "power to invade our privacy, imprison people without meaningful due process, and punish dissent. ... "If lift unchallenged, these incursions could forever erase fundamental privacy and free speech rights." ... We also "must compel the attorney general to return to the people each privacy, 1st ...

• Word Count: 1955
• Approx Pages: 8

These measures, while undoubtedly increasing the security level of the nation, have breached the sacrosanct right of privacy and freedom of speech by monitoring electronic mail, websites and telephone calls, regardless of the person. ... The Electronic Privacy Information Center says, "The FBI claims system "filters" data traffic and delivers to investigators only those "packets" that they are lawfully authorized to obtain." ... The government, however, felt that this data was essential and thus made laws forcing companies to disclose any requested information. ... The definition of security a...

• Word Count: 1253
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, the PATRIOT Act, granted law enforcement and the government the ability to survey suspects and make sure we stay safe. ... If Law Enforcement had not been able to locate the victim, she would probably not be alive today, and there would be another criminal on the loose. ... People are very concerned with this one because they feel like their privacy is being violated. ... The next example is probably one of the most controversial topics in the privacy debate, internet use. ... The PATRIOT Act has allowed law enforcement to receive warrants that allow them to question anyone. ...

• Word Count: 1599
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Though this bill shreds independence and privacy, it was passed by a huge margin. ... Is Americas privacy at stake? ... So much authority has been given to the feds that existing laws of privacy and surveillance had to be revised. ... Electronic Communications Privacy Act governs government access to stored email and other electronic communications. ... They make decisions on the laws that are established by our legi...

• Word Count: 4145
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography

Many people might think that before the enactment of USPA the law-enforcement authority did not have appropriate tool, if any to combat terror. ... But it did give authorities a narrowly defined process for electronic surveillance to be used as last resort in serious criminal case, but the law enforcement authorities must show a "probable cause" before being granted the warrant. ... (www.fas.org), which congress felt was a hindrance to law enforcement. Below Title III, the next tier of privacy protection covers some of those matters, which the Supreme Court has described as beyond the re...

• Word Count: 4175
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School

In reality, the law gave the US government new powers to monitor and spy on communications, detains immigrants indefinitely, and access financial records. ... Theoretically, a Constitutional amendment should supersede any law passed by Congress, but in practice the Patriot Act became the practice. ... This is an example of the overreach of the modern bureaucratic state, violating one of the fundamental human rights, which is the freedom of privacy. ... In this context, we should regard laws like the Patriot Act as still variable and not merely finished products. ... Quite obviously, the resu...

• Word Count: 1320
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The need for such a proactive law is obvious because in this democratic government the people affect policy. The public opinion is clearly seen when the Senate passed this law 98-1 and the House had a clear majority with a 357-66 vote. The investment in government in a time of crisis is fundamental in understanding how a democratic government can pass a law that grants such discretion and infringes on the rights of its citizens (right to privacy). ... The biggest concern for those who oppose this law is that the government has discretion. ... It is important to understand that this law w...

• Word Count: 608
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, some experts warn the vague manner in which this provision has been made could lead to abuse and violation of privacy. ... The second key role was to provide an avenue through which such terrorist would be tried according to international law. ... This information is personal and exposure of such information is a breach to personal privacy. ... The provision of the Act has created clear guidelines acceptable within the law on how to get intelligence and mount surveillance on suspected individuals. While the Act has been criticized for breaching personal privacy, it is fundamental to ...

• Word Count: 1649
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

" Also, Congress acted without any careful or systematic effort to determine whether weaknesses in the surveillance laws had contributed to the attacks, or whether the changes they were making would help prevent further attacks. The government was so afraid of September 11 that they administered laws that violated the rights of humans to prevent this again. ... The September 11 attacks created major controversy, which allowed human privacy to be breached. In other words, when introduced to fear, there will be precautions and new laws that could endanger our basic human rights....

• Word Count: 631
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Overall, personal freedom should make more sense to people as our privacy is being invaded every step the people take. ... The government is going beyond the law in order to "protect" the people from terrorists when all along they are just stalking their own people. ...

• Word Count: 613
• Approx Pages: 2

The Patriot Act gives law enforcement agencies increased powers enabling them to apprehend terrorist. ... According to an article released by proquest the USA Patriot Act "...substantially changed the host of pre existing statutes and legal procedures governing domestic law enforcement, foreign intelligence, immigration and border control, and individual privacy rights" (Proquest par 1). ... As Jena Baker McNeill stated "Terrorist seek to evade the law, not follow it, and are very creative in their attempts to do so. Law enforcement officials must be able to be dynamic in the fa...

• Word Count: 971
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The EPIC, also known as the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is a governmental agency that has been established to enable public knowledge to many the rights and regulations that one has to abide by when utilizing electronic media in the United States. ... Contained within this act are various rights and privileges extended to our federal law enforcement officials in order have curtail and prevent various acts of terrorism. ... Along with the enforcement of the law the Patriot Act also aided in the prosecution of it. ...

• Word Count: 1438
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate