Blog 2.1 The Government and your OSP

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Welcome to the 21st century of technology and the internet, where a big brother can and will monitor every message you send or receive. For some people in America, this is of no concern, these people often say, “I have nothing to hide, so go ahead if it helps fight hackers and crime.” For others that oppose the surveillance of our internet and emails, they will say something along the lines of, “this is a direct violation of our right to privacy, and the government should step back!”

Deciding your position on the matter and how you feel about the government watching over everything you do on the internet is the easy part. Something that requires more discussion and thought is the question, “is it ethical for big government to tap into an online service provider and read your emails?”

To answer this question, we must understand a few things about ethics and specifically information ethics, as this pertains to the question above. Information ethics can be summarized as what governs the ethical and moral issues arising from the development and use of information technologies. It is often tricky when deciding on what is ethical and what is not, because what might be socially acceptable for one person, can be a violation for someone else. Therefore the dilemmas that come from this topic cannot be answered concretely.

I believe that law and order are necessary for our safety and survival. If authorities were not involved and someone wasn’t going after the hackers and thwarting future attacks, how could we function every day as a society, when everything we use requires the internet and sensitive data exchange? Who would feel comfortable doing their shopping on the internet or using their card at the gas pump if we knew authorities would have legal hurdles and obstacles to track down after the fact they were a victim of a cyber crime? If hackers commit a crime and authorities can pinpoint who the criminal is, by all means, they should be able to tap into their online service provider for purposes of conducting a criminal investigation and bringing the person or people responsible to justice.

Our justice system allows authorities to search for information if they discover probable cause in a crime. In this scenario, I would argue that it is ethical for authorities to tap into online service providers and take the appropriate actions to prosecute hackers. This might require that authorities track everyone, and even without probable cause, they can search your emails. My generation has grown up our entire lives without privacy, and so for me, another intrusion on internet privacy is of no concern to me. As someone that does not engage in any illegal behavior online or in personal life, this is not an issue for me that authorities often tap into online service providers in their detection of criminal activity.