Phone call’s surveillancy has been an issue raised in the last few years. While some individuals believe that is legitimate, from a security’s perspective, the governement access to people’s calls and messages, others see this as a huge privacy threat. In my opinion, the safety benefits from this surveillance are outweighted by the negative privacy effects on the society.
Technology enabled governments to improve their defence mechanims. In fact, communication is a vital tool in criminal networks, and as it goes, crime would decrease significantly once security teams are in possession of such data. For instance, serious felonies like terrorism can be avoided if the authorities monitored phone calls of each one of the criminals.
With this kind of surveillance, the crime levels would eventually decrease, however our intimicy can be seriously compromised. The possibility of less private society brings me the idea of a more authocratic state, where you’re watched all the times. Losing privacy would mean disclose some of my secrets and personal confidentialities to the head of my country. Therefore, as I see it, this type of control is a ver dangerous precedent to open, even if it’s consented. To illustrate we have the negative example of authocartic regimes like North Korea, where you are constantly being watched by the government.
As a whole, although combating crime should be one of the governments’ bigger priorities, as I see it, this cannot come at any price. I see privacy as one of the strongest pilars in democracy and its violation so that criminality decreases should not be acceptable.