“Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.
Surveillance by government entities does not occur in a vacuum. Often, government agencies and law enforcement entities rely on private companies, such as Google and Yahoo, as well as citizens to gather information. This “public-private surveillance partnership” is sometimes innocent and cooperative, and sometimes achieved through coercion. Bruce Schneier describes this phenomenon further:
“Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.
If the National Security Agency required us to notify it whenever we made a new friend, the nation would rebel. Yet we notify Facebook. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded copies of all our conversations and correspondence, it would be laughed at. Yet we provide copies of our e-mail to Google, Microsoft or whoever our mail host is; we provide copies of our text messages to Verizon, AT&T and Sprint; and we provide copies of other conversations to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever other site is hosting them.
The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized it’s far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. In some cases, the NSA asks for this data nicely. In other cases, it makes use of subtle threats or overt pressure. If that doesn’t work, it uses tools like national security letters.”
Read further about the public-private partnership and the NSA by following the links above (if you are unfamiliar with the material)
Corporate Statement: Speak to your customers. Assume the role of a corporate entity such as Google or Microsoft and apply the analysis in the “Leave-It-To-The Legislature Argument,” the “Video Surveillance and the No-Privacy-In-Public Argument” or the “Luddite Argument” to explain to your customers why you are cooperating with the government (200 words or less).
Links to articles
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/what-its-like-to-get-a-national-security-letter
https://www.cnet.com/news/feds-put-heat-on-web-firms-for-master-encryption-keys/
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-the-u-s-forces-net-firms-to-cooperate-on-surveillance/
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