I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this link but the title caught my attention. As I read the article I couldn’t help but feel suspicious of the author’s intentions. His concerns about privacy and rights felt over sensationalized and his presentation yellow-journalistic. I did a Google search to see if I could find more information about the case to have a better understanding. I found several articles with all different view points including The Huffington Post, Forbes, and CNN. I also found Legal Information Institute associated with Cornell Law School and even an official pdf file of the opinions of the court(I didn’t know this was so easily accessible online). I was very interested in understanding what was really being decided so I thoroughly read through these items and found out that the courts were deciding on whether the plaintiffs had the right to sue the government for the right against future surveillance of their activities with international bodies using surveillance authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with special concern of the amendments placed in 2008.
Now even though this supreme court case did have to do with our rights and privacy, it was not as horrible and detrimental to online privacy as my first source had made it out to be. I still feel that this ruling is harmful to us by the fact that it has made it harder for us to challenge new laws and regulations that we find dangerous and damaging until after the fact. As well as the implications that all online communication can be classified as being foreign can become a real problem.
I thought this related to our class because we have been talking about invasion of privacy by mostly corporations and online entities and have not touched on the government’s role in privacy as much. Also, due to my ‘filter bubble’ I was exposed to a more liberal opinion on the court’s decision instead of a less biased view. It also shows the importance of being able to tell what counts as a reputable source today.
How do you feel about this decision?
Do you trust your news sources, even well-regarded ones, to paint you a complete picture?