I remember hearing about Edward Snowden on a TV news channel when I was younger but I never really understood the capacity of the situation. While watching Citizenfour, I was surprised and also not at the same time. As mentioned in the documentary, many people joke about and to some extent believe that the government is spying on us, so I was not surprised about some of the documents that were leaked. What surprised me were the lengths the federal governments have taken in order to have access to both the data of their own citizens and in some cases, the citizens of foreign countries, while also hiding this from them. The last conversation between Snowden and Greenwald was also interesting in reference to some of the information Greenwald discovered. I also found it ironic that Snowden has been living in Russia, where due to the current war, has been using propaganda in attempt to conceal what is truly going on. Citizens, media, and official government agencies can only refer to the invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation,” limiting the freedom of speech of their people.
For the Digital Research Paper, I am interested in researching more about the progress of government legislation in creating protection for citizens over the Web. The article “Long Live the Web” by Tim Berners-Lee states this in relation to net neutrality though I believe that is also an important issue to address in relation to our digital citizenship. Does it make sense to use the Constitution or other laws passed around the 1800’s to guide legal decisions regarding to the Internet? Has there been any laws passed specific to protecting and ensuring privacy to digital citizens?
March 16, 2022 at 12:33 pm
I find the connection between the lengths to which the government will go to conceal and extract data from us and Snowden living in Russia particularly interesting. Both of these situations do harbor plenty of similarities; Russia is currently censoring what its citizens are able to view and say, and controlling the flow of data to them. The U.S., similarly, controls data flow but in a slightly different way (gaining access to citizens’ data), and that connection is meaningful.
March 16, 2022 at 12:34 pm
I also was surprised by the lengths the government went to try and gain information. I was unaware of the measures the US government went to try and figure out information about other countries, without them ever knowing. It’s very coincidental, but I also want to explore the legal aspect of technology. It’s interesting to see how privacy fits into this category and look forward to hearing more about your research question.
March 16, 2022 at 12:40 pm
Like you, I was not surprised that the government is able to see what we do but also surprised about how far the government would go. I really like where your research paper is heading. I also want to know if it’s truly fair to use such old laws in a world that’s quickly advancing.