Paris Attacks Lead To Disagreement On How To Prevent Future Attacks


The tragic attacks in Paris have spurred a debate on what measures the U.S. should implement to keep similar attacks from happening at home. While some have suggested we need to ramp up domestic surveillance, others say that such surveillance is illegal.

GOP presidential candidates have offered their suggestions on handling the threat of terrorism. Donald Trump is suggesting a tracking system that monitors all Muslims in the country. Another GOP candidate, Rand Paul, believes all surveillance on innocent civilians is unconstitutional. Senator Paul has been a very vocal proponent of the right to privacy and has been highly critical of the government’s spying efforts. Other candidates have different positions, somewhere between Trump and Paul.

Since the Paris attacks, authorities have learned that the terrorists were using encrypted communications, making the job of monitoring their activities nearly impossible. Law enforcement officials have since suggested weakening encryption so that the government can access anyone’s communications.

[Photo by Thierry Chesnot / Getty Images]
[Photo by Thierry Chesnot / Getty Images]
This proposal, of course, has not been met with open arms from privacy advocates. Many believe that secure communication is necessary to maintaining one’s privacy.

A group of technology giants including Apple, Google, and Facebook sent a strong message of rebuke to those suggesting weakened encryption. In the announcement made by the Information Technology Industry Council, they expressed support for law enforcement, but disputed the idea of tampering with secure communication systems.

“We deeply appreciate law enforcement’s and the national security community’s work to protect us, but weakening encryption or creating backdoors to encrypted devices and data for use by the good guys would actually create vulnerabilities to be exploited by the bad guys, which would almost certainly cause serious physical and financial harm across our society and our economy. Weakening security with the aim of advancing security simply does not make sense.”

The group of technology giants said that the proposed weakening of encryption would cause more harm than good.

“Encryption is a security tool we rely on everyday to stop criminals from draining our bank accounts, to shield our cars and airplanes from being taken over by malicious hacks, and to otherwise preserve our security and safety,”

Since Edward Snowden leaked classified data on domestic surveillance in the U.S. in 2013, privacy advocates have lobbied for an end to the programs. Most aspects of the surveillance programs were put in place shortly after 9/11 in the form of the Patriot Act to try to prevent future attacks.

As some have pointed out, the surveillance programs have not prevented a single terrorist attack from taking place. The Washington Times reported that even the FBI has admitted that no major cases of terrorism have been stopped using the powers granted to law enforcement by the Patriot Act.

According to a Fox News poll, 57 percent of Americans believe that the bulk collection of phone metadata has violated their civil liberties. In that same survey, 65 percent of Americans believe that the NSA spying programs have helped to thwart terrorist plots.

[Photo by Adam Berry / Getty Images]
[Photo by Adam Berry / Getty Images]
While legally, the government must acquire a warrant and have reasonable suspicion to conduct searches, they’ve created a workaround by creating a secret FISA court. The court has issued the government search warrants that applies to whole phone companies.

Legal experts, including the ACLU, and some judges have called some of the NSA spying programs illegal. The ACLU has been critical of the Patriot Act since it was passed years ago. The organization said that the kind of surveillance conducted by the NSA is completely illegal.

“That kind of surveillance is illegal. Period.”

Whether the United States will increase its surveillance efforts in response to the Paris attacks is currently unclear.

[Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

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