As technology increases and becomes more powerful, so does people's ability to hack cell phones or computers and steal crucial information. Information such as telephone numbers, contact details, addresses, credit/debit card numbers or medical records. But what if the same government that you should believe is protecting you was doing it? Surveillance by the government and its agencies is not correct. It violates citizens' fundamental rights, creates distrust in government, and does not help catch terrorists. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, unprovoked surveillance by the government is illegal. A wiretap is only permitted in a criminal investigation when a judge rules on a court order after being presented with probable cause or a suspicion of wrongdoing. When the government examines a citizen's Internet traffic, it has no court order, no warrant, and most of the time not 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 barred from certain types of jobs because they are considered a threat. This information can be stored for years and the government can do what it wants with it. Finally, when someone is on the Internet or on a website and enters sensitive information such as bank passwords or credit card numbers, this is private information, which only the original owner knows about. When the government spies on someone and collects this information, it constitutes a violation of privacy. Spying on citizens is illegal, the government does not have a court order most of the time, the information collected can be used to limit a citizen's services, and it breaks a confidential privacy agreement when someone goes online, that's why surveillance it hurts. According to state surveillance doesn't actually help catch terrorists. The Bush administration established a program called Stellarwind. It was a computer system that searched tons of online databases for patterns that coincided with terrorism. He then informed FBI agents who should investigate. The system notified them so often and the leads were so useless that FBI agents even said "it's sending us complete garbage." Second, the amount of useful leads found and used by online surveillance in the years 2004 to 2007 was absolutely zero. Finally, the possibility of a computer spitting out a terrorist's name is nearly impossible. Tracking patterns online is not enough to catch a criminal mastermind. Unless they literally write “how to build a bomb big enough for the Boston Marathon,” a computer won't be able to analyze a human's patterns and emotions before committing a terrorist act. It takes real people out there collecting data in the correct, unfiltered way with court orders and warrants to capture the evil in society, not a couple of algorithms and commands set on a motherboard. Finally, surveillance creates distrust in government. The NSA is a large US government organization that is supposed to protect its citizens from the dangers of terrorism. But it is usually viewed negatively. The NSA makes people think of men dressed in black with dark sunglasses taking family members away to a top-secret location for interrogation. They are never seen as the protectors of the country who defend the bombings every day and put their lives at risk for the..