The NSA, political collateral and the privacy discussion we had to have

Let’s not pretend for a minute that spying among allies and foes alike hasn’t been happening for centuries. Some even thought the end of the cold war would result in an age of openness, transparency and good will between old foes. 

In the public’s mind these activities have been traditionally been limited between government agencies embassies and those generally in the game of spying. 

The tragic events of September 11 2001 and the countless subsequent tragedies that have ensued under the guise of the ‘war on terror’ have come to define our age. The parallel rise and rise of digital technology whether it be ensconced in our pocket, desktop, car, fridge, toaster etc means that authorities both official and self-appointed have new a myriad of ways of tracking our movements and communications in order to keep us safe or as the US ironically labels these motives, securing the freedom for its’ citizens.  

In the US the heart of these cyber surveillance operations has been the National Security Agency (NSA), an acronym that is rapidly becoming as iconic as the FBI or CIA. Despite being formed 61 years ago, it could be say that most of the general populous hadn’t heard of the NSA until earlier this year when Edward Snowden, the now exiled CIA employee and NSA contractor blew the whistle on the on the Agency’s many tactics and surveillance techniques. 

In 2002 the NSA received extraordinary powers after an executive order from then US President George W Bush that permitted eavesdropping on phone calls and digital interactions inside the country without court approval. This was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the NSA. Surveillance outside the US by the US has been open slather since spying begun.

It would seem that in subsequent years, despite pledging a more honest and open government, the Obama administration has done little to restrain these powers and in some instances may have authorised even more draconian powers. 

Prior to Snowden’s most of us a no idea that the NSA reportedly has access to all communications made via Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, AOL, Skype, Apple and Paltalk, and collects hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts each year. 

As a result of these revelations there has been an increasingly dynamic debate about the legitimacy of these intelligence gathering techniques and whether in the name of national security, impinging on the privacy of millions inside outside of the US is morally right or worth the the damage now being done to America’s international standing.  

While dynamic, the privacy debate within the US has been going along at a mundane, if not complacent pace, that was until it was revealed by information most likely leaked by Snowden, in the German tabloid,Bild German Chancellor, Angela Merkel's phone may have been tapped/surveilled since 2002. The leak resulted in what must have been a highly awkward phone call between Merkel and President Obama. 

The White House quickly issued a carefully worded but highly exposing statement claiming that it is not monitoring Merkel's phone calls and will not do so in future, but it has refused to say whether it did previously. Of course there was no denial that it had done so previously. 

The explosion of America’s surveillance agenda into a major diplomatic incident of the highest order will place further pressure on the Obama administration to increase transparency around the NSA and its’ operations.

In political terms, these sort of scandals have a life of their own, with the chief of the NSA now personally refuting claims that he personally the President in relation to information gathered through the surveillance of the Chancellor’s phone calls. The White House is yet to explicitly deny knowledge of the surveillance of Merkel’s or another 35 world leader’s phones.  

No country can take too much of the moral high ground regarding spying and surveillance. As I said nations of all backgrounds have been spying the hell out of each other for years. Where America falls down is through over the top rhetoric in being a defender of all things that are right and good. The groundswell of indignation mounting at home and abroad for the US is a movement that can easily get out of hand and further affect the America’s standing across the globe. 

The one positive from these scandals is that it is fuelling a discussion about what privacy means in the 21st century. Mega corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple etc are also in the spotlight as people live more and more of their lives online. 

In truth your Internet Service Provider (ISP) knows more about your actions online than most of the of mega corporations and governments put together. However agencies like the NSA are able to garner an almost complete picture of you through their coercive powers of both ISPs and Telcos. 

But now the discussion has begun and any political collateral damage along the way is a small price to pay, if it results in the empowerment of the people to know what happens to their information in the digital age.