Three National security government officials huddled around a computer screen

as they anxiously spied on Carina, a teenager from Wisconsin. The officers can see that

Carina’s phone is typing to her boyfriend Bryan, then they gasp as they discover the

couples plans to go to the movies this Saturday. Many Americans are complaining

about surveillance as if the ordinary civilian’s every text is being read. On the other

hand, suppose Carina and Bryan were texting about planning a murder. It is now a

different story. Suppose the couple were joining Al Qaeda and were scheming to bomb

an airport or shoot up a school. When is it alright for the CIA, FBI, and NSA to interfere?

Digital surveillance is the monitoring of people through a personal device. The

government uses digital surveillance, and many people feel as is if the government

should not have this power and access to every person’s information. This raises the

question, ‘is digital surveillance by the government a “monster” worth having?’ Not only

is digital surveillance worth having for the public’s well being but digital surveillance

should also be tightened to keep the dark web a safe place. Does digital surveillance

invade the privacy of the public? Yes. Is this invasion of privacy more important than the

lives and safety of this country? No.

All Americans know the day September 11th, 2001 and the incidents that

occurred as a dreadful and malevolent monster. After the 911 attacks America was

shocked and struggled to make sense of the events, one thing was clear, however.

Terrorism was serious and something needed to be done about it. The government rose

up to the challenge and responded to the monster of terrorism with the Patriot Act. The

USA-PATRIOT Act is an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing

Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” The Patriot Act was

signed by George Bush on October 26th, 2001 and the president explains the design of

the law, “The legislation strengthens the Justice Department so it can better detect and

disrupt terrorist threats. And the bill gives law enforcement new tools to combat threats

to our citizens from international terrorists to local drug dealers," -George Bush. The

Patriot Act allows the government to use digital surveillance to access personal devices

to combat terrorism. The new tool of digital surveillance was a strategic addition to the

nation’s security in 2001, and continues to be so to this day.

Some critics may argue digital surveillance is ineffective in preventing terrorist

attacks. While this position is popular, with further research one would find that this is

incorrect. The reason why many people are misled into believing digital surveillance is

unsuccessful is because it does not receive the press other subjects obtain. The media

would rather cover the bad news and the negative events rather than the successes of

the security officials. In saying that, the successes must not be ignored. “We have not

had a successful attack by foreign terrorists since 9/11,” says Gen. Keith Alexander, the

director of NSA. Alexander continues to state the U.S. government disrupted 54 terrorist

plots and plans by using information collected under the NSA telephone surveillance

and Internet interception programs. The NSA, along with the FBI and CIA deserve a

major round of applause. One terrorist that could be stopped from killing innocent

civilians by digital surveillance makes the whole controversy worth it. Let alone 54

disrupted attacks. An example of the government thwarting attacks, is in 2009, when an

email was intercepted from a terrorist in Pakistan. The terrorist was planning on
bombing a New York subway, his name is Najibullah Zazi and he had already driven to

New York and was assembling the bomb when officials stepped in. “This attempted

attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion, and it would have been deadly.”

-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.. Instead of criticizing and complaining about digital

surveillance, Americans should be expressing gratitude to the tool that is keeping this

country safe.

Social media is a major part of life today and is deeply rooted in society. Social

media is especially present in public health emergencies. The presence in these

scenarios can be an issue, as fake new spreads, causing panic to spread like a wildfire.

In the spring of 2013, the H7N9 Avian Influenza broke out in China. The government

used digital surveillance to control the public reaction and social impact through social

media and the internet. The government used keywords to efficiently scan the web and

quickly detected the rumors and false concerns. There were 32 rumors, including ideas

such as the H7N9 influenza was caused by eating quails and other poultry. Although

rumors are always hard to prevent, using media and digital surveillance could be

effective to quickly clarify rumors and keep the public calm and controlled. Other

information that was found was, “Both daily posted and forwarded number and BAI for

keyword H7N9 increased quickly during the first 3 days of the outbreaks and remained

at a high level for 5 days. The total daily posted and forwarded number for H7N9 on

Sina microblog peaked at 850,000 on April 3” -National Library of Health. The trends

and concerns found on social media using digital surveillance aided China’s

government in controlling the public during this health emergency. This is an effective
tool rather than the long process of phone surveys that were done in the past.

Digital surveillance is a crucial part of national security and although it

encroaches on privacy, it is simply the sacrifice Americans must make in order to be

safe. President Obama sums this up nicely stating, “You can’t have 100 percent

security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,” he said.

“We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.” I choose safety. Terrorism is

a monster. Why would we want to restrict any of our terrorist combat capabilities?
 Work Cited

Salathé, Marcel, et al. ​Advances in Pediatrics.​, U.S. National Library of Medicine, July
2012, ​www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406005/​.

Hua Gu, Bin Chen, Honghong Zhu, Tao Jiang, Xinyi Wang, “Importance of Internet
Surveillance in Public Health Emergency Control and Prevention: Evidence From a
Digital Epidemiologic Study During Avian Influenza A H7N9 Outbreaks.” ​Journal of
Medical Internet Research,​ JMIR Publications Inc., Toronto, Canada,
www.jmir.org/2014/1/e20/​.

USA Patriot Act: ​https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm

https://www.google.com/search?q=isis&num=30&rlz=1CAACAV_enUS759US759&sour
ce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi086eYmqvbAhV0MH0KHfCtDBoQ_AUICygC
&biw=1536&bih=774&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=bGwMQ7gdkZhIqM

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406005/

https://www.jmir.org/2014/1/e20/

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/speeches/the-fbi-changing-to-meet-todays-challenges

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/prism-najibullah-zazi-subway-nsa.html