As technology increases and becomes more powerful, so does the ability of people to hack cell phones or computers and steal crucial information. Information such as telephone numbers, contacts, addresses, credit/debit card numbers or medical records. But what if this was the doing of the very government you are supposed to believe is protecting you? The oversight of the government and its agencies is not correct. It violates the basic rights of citizens, creates distrust in government, and does not help stop terrorists. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay First, government surveillance without reason is illegal. A wiretap on a telephone is only permitted in a criminal investigation when a judge rules on a court order after being informed of probable cause or suspicion of wrongdoing. When the government examines citizens' Internet traffic, they have no court orders, no warrants, and most of the time, even a suspicion of wrongdoing. The government also uses this data, and in some cases citizens have been locked out of their bank accounts, unable to board planes, or prevented from accessing certain types of jobs because they were considered a threat. This information can be kept for years and the government can do whatever it wants with it. Finally, when someone is on the Internet or on a website and enters sensitive information such as banking passwords or credit card numbers, that information is private and known only to the original owner. When the government spies on someone and collects that information, it violates privacy. Spying on citizens is illegal, the government doesn't have a court order most of the time, the information they collect can be used to restrict a citizen's services, and it breaks a confidentiality pact when someone 'one connects, that's why monitoring hurts. Second, state surveillance doesn't actually help stop terrorists. The Bush administration established a program called Stellarwind. It was a computer system that combed through tons of online databases looking for patterns that coincided with terrorism. He then informed FBI agents and they were supposed to investigate. The system alerted them so many times and the leads were so useless that FBI agents even said, "This is sending us garbage." Second, the number of useful leads found and used through online monitoring between 2004 and 2007 was absolutely zero. Finally, the chances of a computer spitting out a terrorist's name are almost impossible. Tracking online patterns isn't enough to catch a criminal mastermind. Unless they literally type "how to make a bomb big enough for the Boston Marathon," a computer will not be able to analyze the patterns and emotions of a human being before committing an act of terrorism. It takes real people to collect data in an unfiltered way, with court orders and warrants to detect societal evil, not with a few algorithms and commands installed on a motherboard. Finally, surveillance creates distrust in government. The NSA is a large American government organization meant to protect its citizens from the dangers of terrorism. But it is generally perceived in a negative way. The NSA reminds us of men in..