Wikipedia Searching

The first thing I noticed while searching Wikipedia was that there was no page entitled simply "Government Surveillance". One good project idea might be to create a small page on this topic, with a list of common surveillance techniques and links to appropriate pages and information.

Now, on to the searching: I first looked at results for the term "wiretapping", and while there was no page directly called Wiretapping or Wiretap, my search did directly transfer me to the page on Telephone Tapping.  This page appeared to be very complete in terms of US information, but there were a lot of missing citations in discussion of international wiretapping laws.  There could also be more mention of how wiretapping laws and technologies are implemented in other countries.

I next looked up the term "data mining".  This article was also very thorough in terms of information presented, but it was lacking in citations and variety of sources when trying to describe the actual process.  The background information was very well fleshed out and gave a lot of insight into the technological specifications, but the process and business application sections could use some more information and sources.

So, in short, since government surveillance is such a commonly discussed topic, it seems that we may not be able to add too much in the way of information, but definitely we can help with citations.

More Research

For my second round of research, I used Kosmix.  I chose this site because I thought it would provide me with a very good general overview of all the different types of controversy surrounding the issue of government surveillance.  

I searched three different times with the terms government surveillance controversy, wiretapping, and data mining legal issues.  I decided to use some terms that were a little less broad so that my search results would be more closely tailored to what I was looking for, namely the legal issues and controversy that surround questions of government surveillance.

These terms led me to a couple of helpful websites.  The first was that of the GAP, or the Government Accountability Project.  The GAP is a nonprofit public interest group that tries to act as a "whistleblower" on the government.  They attempts to keep tabs on what they see as government injustices and inform the public about their rights.  The GAP does not focus solely on the issue of surveillance, but like all public interest groups, they are very concerned with privacy.  This site is funded by donations and run by a group of people, many of whom seem to have legal experience.  The site is updated daily, so the information is current.  It is, however, probably a little biased against the government.  To counter this, I'm going to have to look for some sites that advocate governmental security measures so that I can accurately gauge public opinion.

The second site I found was a .pdf document that talks about legal issues with data mining and how it can be effectively used.  It is hosted by Hunton and Williams, a reputable national law firm.  They appear to do a lot of work with privacy litigation and first amendment rights, so I thought they would be a reputable source.  And they are a noted law form, so the reliability of their information is not that questionable.  And the copyright is very recent, so the information on the site is probably current as well.  The document itself actually takes something of a positive view on government surveillance, and talks about ways that it can be used so that it can both protect the United States and serve its purpose.

Research, Research

I used Infomine, because I hoped it would provide me access to some more scholarly research and legal documents. Most popular websites about government surveillance seem to have an edge of “conspiracy!” about them.

I searched three times, first with the term “wiretap”, second with “NSA”, and thirdly with “data mining”.

The two most informative and interesting sites I found were the EEF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) homepage, and a series of CRS (Congressional Research Service) reports.

The EEF, even though it is a publicly run site, seems to be chock full of information. They trawl the web and Congressional hearings every day to get up-to-date information about privacy laws and government activities. That being said, they do display a very clear bias against governmental activities. They believe that people have an unquestionable and indestructable right to privacy, and the government should just butt out. This site is funded by public donations, and appears to have very reliable and current information. It does, however, contain mostly legal information, not actual descriptions of how surveillance works. I will have to look for some more sites that give technical information as well as unbiased information.

The CRS reports will be extremely helpful when we are learning about government surveillance from a legal standpoint. They exhaustively detail Congressional hearings and bills, and they provide a lot of information that the public does not know is available. The site is controlled and funded by the University of Texas, so the information is probably very reliable. This site is excellent for legal information, but it is lacking in technical description and personal opinion. It would be nice to have some sites on wiretapping technology or how government activities have affected the public.

For my next search, I will try to concentrate on surveillance technology, rather than legal information.

An Introduction

welcome, welcome.

for those who don't know, this blog was begun as a project for a Communications class: an assignment that entails using readily available internet tools to research and present on government surveillance and our right to privacy.

not many Americans know how much of their private lives the government can really see. the goal of this blog will be to educate people on the rights that they actually have, and how to best defend them.

(well, that was fun!)