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.
Those both sound like great resources to use, as well as reputable. When I was researching I came across a lot of blogs/discussion boards or articles about government surveillance that were very opinionated (and some had some good things to say), but these are not the most reliable, good sources. I also ran into the problem of finding good sources discussing the advantages of government surveillance. Most of the sites that I found were against government surveillance technology and for privacy rights. We'll have to research the opposing arguments more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Annie here. Its good to finally have a source that is for government surveillance but I still think we need to get more information on the "pro" side of things. Maybe we could address the issue in our presentation, that many people have strong opinions when it comes to privacy. Is there any way that privacy can be maintained with the patriot act? Is there a middle ground?
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