Deficits and Domestic Espionage: The Sad Reality and Cost of High Security
Have you ever gotten the feeling of being watched? Just to look over your shoulder to see that nothing was there? Well, the truth of the matter is: you are. Increasing more and more rapidly in the past 16 years the United State Government, and its agencies have bolstered security and surveillance measures to frightening levels developing a massive deficit, and a hoard of personal data. Tight Government security and increasingly dramatic surveillance measures have helped secure safety for citizens, but have violated privacy, and has gradually increased in budget.
To fully understand the complete extent of government security costs we need to hark back to the tragic events of the September 11th terror attack on the World Trade Center. Government Security has been on a rise in accord with the war on terror, forever changing the way people go on about their lives. During the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack President Bush collected 22 federal departments to form the Department Homeland Security (DHS) through the Homeland security act. The organizations range from Immigration and Customs Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Office for Domestic Preparedness (Department of Homeland Security). Although, for the time, the unification of these agencies created a better flowing and faster working government for a time of peril and regular day-to-day operations, it may have compiled too much authority in a single entity. A more efficient government can be a tremendous boon, but with too much authority in one hand the concept of the American check-and balance government loses some of its integrity.
Another big change was the enactment of The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 or USA PATRIOT Act, which removed limitations of government agencies in enforcing security as read through the U.S. Government Publishing Office's database. Bolstering domestic security, surveillance activities and many more world changing aspects detailed throughout its 10 articles. While unifying many domestic agencies into the DHS made protecting the domestic united states more efficient and responsive to emergencies, the PATRIOT act was inherently flawed: it took away restraint and balances onto agencies. During the aftermath of 9/11 it could be understood as a rational response to strengthen Americas defenses, and has prevented attacks of terror, in the present-day loopholes provided by the patriot act have encouraged a snowballing and now warped sense of security and control that has compromised the rights of American citizens privacy.
In the wake of increased security also meant more government spending on defense for both domestic and overseas operations. The Government's Budget has followed a gradually increasing pattern for defense, today congress has approved a total of $824.7 dollars for the 2018 fiscal year budget for defense (Department of Defense, or DoD) spending (Amadeo, "U.S. Military Budget: Components, Challenges, Growth"). This is compared to the gradually increasing budget since 2003 $437.4 billion (only 583.7 Billion in 2017 $USD(dollartimes)). While the Department of Homeland Security's total is $50.9 billion. (Amadeo, "U.S. Federal Budget Breakdown"). That's a lot of money being spent on defense, but is it being used effectively?
Less restrictions on government agencies meant more intrusive tactics were used on the private citizen in hopes to prevent terror by catching terrorists and other criminals plot their activities online. This sets a line between upholding security and invading privacy, but is it clear where precisely the threshold between the two begin and that line of ethics is crossed? Reporter David Von Drehle wrote this in "The Surveillance Society" on time:
"Government agencies... collect and store billions of records every day, and they're hungry for more: not just phone records and Web addresses but e-mails, texts, downloads, medical records, retail receipts, bank balances, credit-card numbers and travel itineraries."
This hefty stockpile of cyber data collection is also alive in the real world through city-spanning security camera systems known as CCTV. The CCTV cameras seem like a plain and sensible reason to both deter crime and to catch lawbreakers, and doesn't really feel like an invasion of privacy since they are posted in public places, but cyber data is online, in the sense that the government is monitoring you in your own home. The data is collected without a warrant, acting as a government official could sweep through your home at any time, without cause or reason, documenting every minute detail about your life.
Although, the defense budget is a lot of money, and warrantless searches is an extreme violation of privacy, we need to look at the effectiveness of the various methods of surveillance and use of the budget. The budget for defense gets split between the divisions of the U.S. Armed forces (Marines and the Navy, Airforce, and Army), and a big part goes to defense contractors like Boeing and Raytheon for expensive military equipment like missiles (Amadeo, "Department of Defense: What It Does and Its Impact"). Although, more than a third of the defense spending goes to troops for costs like salary and benefits, and these kinds of costs are expected to rise in the coming years! The military tries to cut costs and become more efficient, but the large upkeep impedes their efforts at refinement, expecting to increase in budget 100% by 2024. (Amadeo, "U.S. Military Budget: Components, Challenges, Growth"). Being the world leader in defense is a feat, and in the future, if the military can provide the same level of protection, while operating more efficiently with less upkeep would be a miraculous, yet trying to pass the hurdle of a rapidly increasing expense is proving to be something that even economic experts seem to have trouble coming up with a solution for. Being as integrated as it is, the gradual problem may need a gradual solution, because a swift fix would cause too much chaos in wake of government shutdowns. Yet at the same time letting the deficit expand too swiftly may cause it to collapse also causing chaos. Even if the problem of a bloated budget may not be fixed soon, the government needs to attempt the slow conversion of improvement before the problem becomes so massive it implodes.
Though costly and increasingly financially unstable, in a joint effort with the defense department, agencies both domestic and international by 2005, 400 suspects and numerous terror attacks were prevented with the lighter government restraints and expensive costs (Carafano). With these victories proving the methods of obtaining security through cyber surveillance and military defense, the victory is bitter sweet for thinking the military could be more effective with time, and cyber defense may not need to collect so much private data to maintain the same results.
Senators Udall, Wyden, and Heinrich plead that "dragnet security" practices aren't effective in deterring illicit activities, and research by Shah, Rajiv and Jeremy Braithwaite in their article "Spread Too Thin: Analyzing the Effectiveness of the Chicago Camera Network on Crime" support small effectively placed cameras are more effective than a large saturated number. This concept can hark back to the age old sayings like, "quality over quantity," "bigger (in this case more) isn't better" and "too much of a good thing can be bad." If the mass surveillance with security cameras-this "dragnet security" is actually more effective with less-strategically placed cameras, maybe the same concept can be applied to the online data procurement. Maybe collecting and analyzing less-more relevant data, instead of every piece of data there is, it would increase the effectiveness of surveillance, while maintaining the privacy of innocent citizens. The mass spying proved to be a useful tool for capturing suspects and preventing terror, but proved to be highly unethical as the NSA hoarded people's data, and following leaks, proved to be dangerous for agencies to be left unchecked.
Leaks by NSA contractor Edward Snowden is what first revealed full extent the American people saw the extend the NSA was spying on its citizens (Hosenball). Snowden leaked 200,000 secret documents that proved to be a double-edged sword; they revealed the government's full surveillance operation, to both law-abiding and illicit citizens. So, while the public was notified, both the cunning criminal and innocent citizens were made aware just how much and what kind of data is monitored online. Forcing the government to reprimand their ethical rights, but also losing some of their effectiveness as criminals and terrorists will avoid their previous methods in favor of more covert ways to avoid detection. This was only the beginning of the downfall and scandals of government spying.
In the event of the "theshadowbrokers scandal" NSA spying and hacking tools leaked exploits to Windows and Linux operating systems giving backdoor access to hackers, effectively shutting down windows and Linux based operating systems by encoding their data (J Cox). The leaks made it possible for criminals use the tools the government used to spy via back door access on the operating systems as a tool for security and special privilege control. So, criminals used NSA methodology to create harmful exploits to extort funds from people using viruses manufactures through the NSA technology, the viruses being called ransomware, all throughout the world! While many name brands have since fixed these exploits by patching the backdoor access, there may be more exploits that hackers and cybercriminals have yet to use.
Mass hacks and NSA data hoarding, unfortunately, aren't the only and aren't the worse of the government spying to be seen. Vault 7 leaks by Wikileaks reveal the CIA and other agencies have hacked household smart devices like smart TVs, computer webcams, and cellphones to directly, in real-time, spy on citizens (Shane Rosenberg Lehren). What this means is the simile made earlier of a camera in your bedroom is much realer, and is much more the reality of the gross violation of your privacy.
A new act was passed to compensate for unethical violations found in the USA PATRIOT ACT: the USA Freedom Act of 2015. Many parts of the new act put limitations on government agencies that were since left unchecked; for example, phone records will be saved by phone companies, but agencies need a warrant to access the records of specific individuals instead of freely hoarding every citizens data (Sensenbrenner). In reformation of many of the leniencies given to government agencies in the USA PATRIOT Act the USA Freedoms Act was formed to limit agencies unchecked power, but maintain their ability to prevent terror attacks (gpo.gov). While, it is disappointing such a measure to fix the careless actions of government agencies, but maintain their effectiveness, it is at least a step in mending the lesions on American privacy.
Today in 2017, through the effects leading up from 9/11 and the USA PATRIOT Act of 2002 the American citizen is safe, but at a grave financial and personal cost. The past cannot be changed, but it can be learned from. Hopefully the government will maintain ethics, honesty and transparency to a sensible extent. Though, it will take time to completely regain the lost privacy that was lost in pursuit of protection and safety, it is still unknown the full extent of damages yet to come from the various leaked scandals. While efficient quality is superior to mass quantity the USA Freedom Act has paved a way, and example, for a start to a solution that is not only effective, but maintains the rights of citizens and works to decrease the cost to do it! Being proactive in voting, signing petitions, and staying in contact with your state's local and federal politician (which can be done via government websites as usa.gov/state-governor)is the best way to direct your taxes and secure your rights-without having to compromise your safety.
Works Cited:
Amadeo, Kimberly. "What Is a Base Budget?" The Balance
Amadeo, Kimberly. "How Defense Shapes the U.S. Economy." The Balance
Carafano, James. "U.S. Thwarts 19 Terrorist Attacks Against America Since 9/11." The Heritage Foundation
"Contact Your State Governor." Contact Your State Governor | USAGov
"Financial Calculators." DollarTimes - Financial Calculators and Money-Saving Info
Graham, Miles. "Americans Sharply Split on Privacy Issues." Time
Reporters without borders. "United States: First Amendment under Increasing Attack | Reporters without Borders."
"Homeland Security Act of 2002." Homeland Security Act of 2002 | Homeland Security
Hosenball, Mark. "NSA chief says Snowden leaked up to 200,000 secret documents." Reuters
National Security Agency. "Mission & Strategy." Mission & Strategy, U.S. Department of Defense
"NSA Exploit Peddlers The Shadow Brokers Call It Quits." Motherboard
Shane, Scott, Rosenburg M, Lehren A W. "WikiLeaks Releases Trove of Alleged C.I.A. Hacking Documents." The New York Times
Sensenbrenner, F. "H.R.2048 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): USA FREEDOM Act of 2015."
"UNITING AND STRENGTHENING AMERICA BY PROVIDING APPROPRIATE TOOLS REQUIRED TO INTERCEPT AND OBSTRUCT TERRORISM (USA PATRIOT ACT) ACT OF 2001." "U.S. Government Publishing Office.
"UNITING AND STRENGTHENING AMERICA BY FULFILLING RIGHTS AND ENSURING EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE OVER MONITORING ACT OF 2015." U.S. Government Publishing Office
Drehle, David Von. "The Surveillance Society." Time
Cauley, Leslie. "NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls." USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network
University at Buffalo. "A Hard Look at Government Surveillance." A Hard Look at Government Surveillance - University at Buffalo School of Law
"UDALL, WYDEN, HEINRICH CHALLENGE EFFECTIVENESS OF DRAGNET SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM IN NSA COURT CASE SENATORS: NSA PROGRAM DOESN'T ADEQUATELY PROTECT PRIVACY, WARN AGAINST EXCESSIVE, OVERBROAD GOVERNMENT POWERS." States News Service
Shah, Rajiv and Jeremy Braithwaite. "Spread Too Thin: Analyzing the Effectiveness of the Chicago Camera Network on Crime." Police Practice & Research, vol. 14, no. 5
Thank You for providing any criticism and feedback! - Sean C.