Should Government Monitoring Our People's Privacy In America

Living in the “Land of the Free” does not necessarily mean that any person is free to do whatever they want when they please. Government plays a huge role in our daily lives, they set and enforce the rules we must follow, they monitor our behavior in public and private to make sure each day goes as smooth as possible. Without repercussions to actions that a small percentage of our population carries out America would be pure anarchy. But how close is too close? Does our government cross the line from protecting us to invading innocent everyday people’s privacy? According to pewinternet.org, thirty-seven percent of the people they questioned expressed that they were very concerned about the government monitoring the usage of their cellphones,
If you are worried about the government monitoring your actions and personal life odds are you are partaking in some kind of illegal activity.
Even though not all Americans love the idea of being monitored day to day the people who feel like their rights are being infringed agree on one thing, and that is the government should monitor terrorists and not the average American. I see a huge issue with that somewhat popular opinion; if you take a look at majority of the recent mass killings, they are done by the “average american.” Nikolas Cruz who was responsible for the killing of seventeen Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, appeared to be the average Floridian teen with a mean streak, Stephen Paddock who was responsible for the deadliest mass shooting by a single person in United States history which killed fifty-eight as well as injuring a whopping 851 concert goers in Las Vegas. Paddock was a retired
The National Security Agency (NSA) receives billions of text messages, phone calls, and emails on a national level that records and groups into various groups, millions of which are ignored due to the fact that no trigger words are expressed and analyzed by professionals who then deem necessary for investigation or not. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has over 1.5 million private and government records ranging from criminal cases to basic personal information such as social security number and birthdate. The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFAS) has over 60 million fingerprints consisting of citizens and U Visa recipients waiting to run for background checks and criminal identification every day. Have you ever traveled across national borders and had to have a passport, guess what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also has accessible information to your fingerprints as well as photographs that is received by numerous DHS branches including intelligence, law enforcement, and immigration. In 2009 there were 210 million licensed drivers in the United States alone, according to the Federal Highway System it increases an average of 1.9 percent per year. The FBI has been working with numerous state departments of motor vehicle agencies on connecting the two