Op-Ed
BY JOSHUA AXTELL, Junior
BLYTHEWOOD- The government has been spying on people for years in America ever since wiretapping was invented. The government knows everything about everyone now from a favorite color to a place someone lived 10 years ago.
In the 2016 election President Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower. White House press secretary who cited comments from Fox News made by former judge Andrew Napolitano, who said “three intelligence sources” had told Fox News of Obama using the British spy agency GCHQ to install wiretaps in Trump tower.
The National Security Agency director Michael Rogers rejected the idea that the GCHQ were behind the wiretapping claim. The claim that the GCHQ were behind this “clearly frustrates a key ally of ours,” Michael Rogers said.
The government watches everywhere we go in public and has gained plenty of information on all of the people in America. The police have cars that pull up a car's license whether it’s speeding or not.
Not only police cars but many other places like bridges or traffic lights have license plate readers on them as well so tracking becomes much easier and it would be possible for someone to track someone all the way from a store 45 min all the way back to their house.
“The government monitors 75-80% of all of our behavior and even though they do this, in the future this could end up protecting us, but it does infringe our privacy rights,” Law Education teacher Macy Hunter said.
People born in the U.S. automatically become U.S. Citizens and the government tracks them and everyone everywhere. Some people may say that the government should monitor Americans a little while others say that as long as good reason is used they can monitor as much as they want.
“They should be allowed to access everything online and should be able to monitor people in the real world if they have a good reason to," senior Cory Yingling said. “The government has everything about you stored in their database from your birth certificate to your most recent purchase.”
The government has been keeping track of all of Americans ever since birth for a long time now. Some people believe that this is for our safety while others believe it’s just a way to sell information to companies for money.
“In an effort to keep us safe is the thing I want to believe, but the government could be selling my information to companies for ads which I don't agree with “Freshman Daniel Brown said.
The government has been watching everyone in America for years and knows all the information from someone’s Birth Certificate to what someone is typing about them now, however if they weren't able to monitor everyone they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a terrorist or a normal everyday citizen.
