Spying on the Home Front, Movie Review Example

Risks to Privacy

The video of ‘Spying on the home front’, by Front line TV production illustrates the threats to individual privacy as a result from  Government intervention in the war on terror.  The film focuses upon a particular alert issue around New Year ’s Eve in Las Vegas.  The film highlights the huge amount of individual surveillance involved. This includes CCTV film being taken  the time you arrive at the Airport to that of your entire stay in the City.  The authorities can gain access to all of your personal information from records in the Hotels, Casinos to details of your hotel records.  An FBI sweep covered a large number of people that were subject to eavesdropping and review of private conversations. In another incident AT&T were found to be providing the Government access to phone and internet traffic allowing the monitoring of this communications media.

Government Rights

In the name of National Security the Government have sweeping legal rights to gather information by a variety of means. Nevertheless, we are however a democracy and entitled to a degree of privacy and human rights.  As such, in theory, the Government do not have carte blanche to do just as they like otherwise we would be living in a totalitarian state.  Individuals have legal rights too and the NSA needs to stay within these legal bounds.

Government vs. Private Industry

The Government has the duty of protecting the lives of its Citizens from attack or acts of terrorism  and as such this gives it extensive rights in the collection and dissemination of information. This as opposed to Private industry which purely uses this data to profile customers and use it as a means for marketing and selling goods which is profit motivated.  There is a huge distinction here.

In theory the Private sector is likely to do more damage with the collection and dissemination of information than the Public Sector.  The Government does have regulated policies and security procedures in place to a certain level of standards.  The Private Sector varies from firm to firm and has no such regulations.  The Government agencies are also protecting the rights of citizens and are not motivated by profit or capital gains.