Continuous Surveillance Essay

Continuous surveillance is no longer a fragment of science fiction owing its origin to a high tech Spielberg or Cameron movie. Governments now have access to the minute details of citizens across borders violating the very basics of an individual’s right to Privacy on the pretext of preventing harm and prosecute wrongdoings especially from organised groups and terrorists.
In June 2013 Edward Snowden, a former employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor for the NSA, leaked details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence services and their partners to the media. A day later, the papers revealed details about PRISM , an NSA program that gave a front door access to data from at least nine major US internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to name a few, that targeted the Internet communications and stored data of “non-US persons”
Spy craft has been in existence since World war I and many countries have lawfully developed state laws to lawfully engage in such actions. In the wake of Snowden’s revelations, it has become clear that this paradigm has changed the landscape of state surveillance. The very line of what is entailed in criminal offences and state security seems to blurring with every passing moment.
The rule of law requires the commitment the states action in itself is subjected to the law. In this paper the researchers seek to enthral upon the issues of secrecy, complexity, jurisdiction and the effectiveness of mass surveillance in countering terrorism. This paper seeks understand the serious violation of the very principle of the rule of law through various examples majorly based on the revelations of Snowden and its impact on policies of US, UK, France and