While further information about the shocking scope of NSA surveillance revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden continues to emerge, other programs and legislation at the state level aim to further expand the reach of government surveillance into U.S. citizens’ privacy.
In California, after backlash from privacy groups, lawmakers put legislation on hold that would have embedded radio-frequency identification chips (RFIDs) in California state driver’s licenses and identification cards. While the bill is likely to be revisited and reintroduced in coming months, four states — Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington — already embed licenses with the tiny transmitters, which then link them to a national database controlled by the Department of Homeland Security.
If more states begin adopting RFID technology, the federal government could make the licenses mandatory nationwide, causing the technology to become another technique used to track U.S. citizens’ every move. As the federal government expands the scope of its information gathering efforts, it’s not difficult to imagine RFID chips becoming mandatory under a wide-reaching Homeland Security program. But these chips serve as a perfect example of the government at all levels trying to extend surveillance of its own citizens using fear and the post-9/11 security climate as an excuse.
Obviously, national security remains a priority for any government to consider. But at what point are they even going to pretend that we still have all of the freedoms that should be afforded to us as U.S. citizens? Many Americans have been so heinously desensitized to the violations of our privacy now that we do not even get up in arms about the fact that they are still tracking our movements, reading our private emails, listening in on our phone calls and slowly but surely rooting out any scrap of personal freedom we can cling to.
Government officials didn’t even convincingly feign remorse or reconsideration for their invasive programs following the Snowden NSA leaks. Instead they push forward with taking American surveillance to a level not seen before, fueled by advancements in technology, bolstered defense budgets and a need to keep tabs on its citizens’ every move.
In the wake of the growing backlash to domestic surveillance, the government scrambled to convince U.S. citizens these measures were nothing but precautionary and simply targeted those who they believed posed an imminent threat to American safety. Unfortunately that is not the case, as revealed in recent weeks by the level of access and information they gather from all parts of the normal, harmless American citizen’s life.
The idea of a “big brother” government state has left the pages of George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and become a part of everyday life in the United States. Encrypted emails are no longer private, a secret court grants almost every request to further surveillance information gathering methods and our phone and internet providers hand over our private records and transcripts at the request of NSA. Our emails, phone calls, text messages and Internet browser searches are all now observed, monitored and recorded with frightening regularity.
The federal government continues to trample on our right to privacy and further pushes a governmental agenda that expands spying on, tracking and increasingly monitoring its own citizens’ actions and movements at every moment.
No matter how common these surveillance measures become, we still have rights. Do not let the government convince you otherwise.