Post by Jennibella on Oct 16, 2007 19:55:16 GMT -5
This is an article I wrote as an assignment for my CS104 class.
US surveillance began centuries ago with the concept of slave passes, which allowed slave-owners to monitor and control the mobility of their "chattel." From slaves, the history of surveillance next turns to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. All Chinese laborers were forced to register with the government and subject themselves to being photographed and fingerprinted. A whole apparatus of surveillance was created.
In the 1920s, government surveillance spread to political radicals, especially workers trying to organize union activity. J. Edgar Hoover headed this government surveillance unit which would later become the FBI. As the 20th century advanced, computer technology proved a powerful enhancement to the regime of surveillance. This allowed most devices and databases to be monitored and evaluated, including automobiles, Your car can be tracked by GPS, and your spending habits can be gleaned from accessing your credit card records. Internet and email are monitored in the workplace and cameras are just about everywhere.
While it is illegal for the US to spy on citizens, our government has found a way around that law. In 1947 Echelon was founded. Echelon is the the global network of computers that automatically searches through 90% of all emails and faxes sent and received throughout the US and the UK. Echelon works by combining forces between the US and the UK with the intention of spying on each others citizens. Basically what this means is that the UK spies on us and our government spies on them and then they swap the information.
The original purpose of Echelon was to keep an eye on the U.S.S.R during the cold war and now they use the ever popular "terrorism" excuse to contine their surveillance on all of us.
For more information visit: www.nsawatch.org/index.html
US surveillance began centuries ago with the concept of slave passes, which allowed slave-owners to monitor and control the mobility of their "chattel." From slaves, the history of surveillance next turns to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. All Chinese laborers were forced to register with the government and subject themselves to being photographed and fingerprinted. A whole apparatus of surveillance was created.
In the 1920s, government surveillance spread to political radicals, especially workers trying to organize union activity. J. Edgar Hoover headed this government surveillance unit which would later become the FBI. As the 20th century advanced, computer technology proved a powerful enhancement to the regime of surveillance. This allowed most devices and databases to be monitored and evaluated, including automobiles, Your car can be tracked by GPS, and your spending habits can be gleaned from accessing your credit card records. Internet and email are monitored in the workplace and cameras are just about everywhere.
While it is illegal for the US to spy on citizens, our government has found a way around that law. In 1947 Echelon was founded. Echelon is the the global network of computers that automatically searches through 90% of all emails and faxes sent and received throughout the US and the UK. Echelon works by combining forces between the US and the UK with the intention of spying on each others citizens. Basically what this means is that the UK spies on us and our government spies on them and then they swap the information.
The original purpose of Echelon was to keep an eye on the U.S.S.R during the cold war and now they use the ever popular "terrorism" excuse to contine their surveillance on all of us.
For more information visit: www.nsawatch.org/index.html