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As technology has advanced substantially over the years, government agencies have utilized these advances to collect and analyze data that has been collected. The NSA more specifically has developed countless algorithms to collect, sort and analyze data on the citizens of the United States. No longer is surveillance done predominantly by people, but it is done by computers and algorithms that have been specifically programmed for surveillance. This includes listening to phone calls, facial recognition, collection of a person’s writing online, texts, emails and countless other forms of information. According to George Dvorksy in his article “The 10 Algorithms That Dominate Our World”, algorithms are used to monitor people’s information now because “there is far too much data for humans to collect and interpret.” This is astounding because what the author is saying here is that the NSA collects so much data on individual citizens that humans are simply incapable of not only being able to collect the data but also interpret it.
Now, controversy has erupted surrounding what exactly the NSA collects from private citizens and does not consider an invasion of privacy. The NSA simply does not believe that they are collecting our data and that the only data that is considered “collected” is what has been read by a human, not a computer running an algorithm. Essentially the NSA has unlimited access to the information of citizens as long as no one admits to having seen the data that the computers have collected. Scary thought. The clause that defines what it means to be “collected” in relation to data was written in 1982…Maybe it’s time for the NSA to update their data collection policies for the modern era.
Sources:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-10-algorithms-that-dominate-our-world-1580110464
https://giphy.com/gifs/reactiongifs-mrw-oc-Dzmg5QAojwb6M/download
https://giphy.com/search/satellite