“Every breath you take, every move you make…. Every bond you break, every step you take, I will watch. Every single day... Every word you say. Every game you play... Every night you stay, I'll watch you. If you've ever really looked at the lyrics to "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, you can think of it as the government's theme song for you or every person they police. By definition, government surveillance is the practice of the government keeping tabs on all of your activities as a civilian, whether you are aware of it or not, for the purpose of identifying criminals or terrorists and ultimately putting an end to their harmful activities. This practice has been around longer than you might think, since before the Internet or smartphones were invented. This happens not only within American society but also internationally, with other governments adopting their own methods of domestic espionage on their country's population. According to the Encyclopedia of Human Rights in the United States, the meaning of surveillance practices is explained thus: “In a criminal and counterterrorism sense, it is an investigative process by which police, FBI, CIA, or other government agents they collect evidence on crimes, or alleged crimes, or terrorism through continuous observation of people or places. The observation can be visual or electronic.” With this quote alone, it can be said that government surveillance is legal through the approval of the national government and can definitely seem beneficial to the national security of the United States. There is no doubt that something good can come from this. The government uses these claims to justify such actions and claim that they are not harmful or unethical. However, being ethical means upholding moral principles and virtue. However, if you were to look beyond the big fact of existing surveillance in order to go after the bad guys and analyze the smaller facts, you would be able to see that there are considerable reasons why it is overall unethical, reasons ranging from privacy to violation of constitutional rights. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe first topic on the list that would demonstrate the immorality - at least the immorality by American standards - of being constantly watched or monitored is the violation of civil rights, that is, the constitutional rights of the people. Through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the National Security Agency (NSA), the FBI and the CIA have the opportunity to have their surveillance requests justified so that it is possible to be on the lookout for possible foreign spies that could represent a possible threat, and therefore it is legal. Regardless of how important this may seem to the protection of the nation, under the 1st and 4th Amendments of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, the American people have the right to free speech and the right to privacy or to be protected from unreasonable search and these rights are ignored. Government surveillance is much more than just a peek at your face through the webcam. This means that your activities that the government likes to monitor include means to secretly track your phone records, wiretaps into audio/call recordings, emails, etc. You can be at the highest level of technological proficiency, but you can still be targeted without your knowledge. This doesn't sound much like having the right to privacy or protection from unreasonableness, right? And the whole right to free speech and expression has been curtailed because the words that you say during aphone call could profile you as a “potential national threat” or even cause you to be blackmailed. Being “free” may be an illusion at this point. As mentioned above, government surveillance has been around for a long time, even before the invention of the first smartphones or smartphone computers. Instances where foreign espionage and attacks in modern US history (e.g. the 9/11 attacks) have heightened the sense of paranoia about keeping America safe - or at least that's why they say they do - thus leading to acts such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would give intelligence permission to make necessary but seemingly inconvenient observations about the public. Who's to say whether they should be trusted as much as the next foreign government? Which brings us to number two on the list, which is power. It's as simple as that where modern technology makes it even more possible for our federal government to go far beyond just hunting down the bad guys. The more rapidly technology evolves, the more the spectrum of government surveillance can expand, which ultimately leads to more, or rather indefinitely, power to the government and less power to the people. It doesn't help that big tech companies work side by side with the government. Referring to the PBS article "Government Surveillance of Citizens Raises Civil Liberties Concerns," "'Meanwhile, the Washington Post revealed that the NSA and FBI have two other spying programs targeting American citizens , including one that uses data from Facebook, Google and Apple and one that uses information from major credit card companies. Audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs "allow analysts to track movements and a person's contacts over time," the article explains. "They can literally watch your ideas form as you write," an anonymous professional intelligence official told the Post.' “ Letting tech and financial companies have an idea of ​​what you're doing and what you like and don't like gives them an edge in their marketing strategies. As a result, their zealous adherence to government intelligence agencies only results in double, triple, or perhaps indefinite power to the government in their surveillance capabilities. Third, constant supervision of citizens' activities and assets can definitely do more harm than good. Knowing that you are being monitored regardless of whether you are on guard or not can undoubtedly cause psychological effects of paranoia and anxiety. The whole idea of ​​“If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid” just suggests that you're guilty if you want privacy. Although no physical harm is done to citizens, their social life and sense of security within themselves diminishes. In “Under Surveillance and Overwrought: American Muslims' Emotional and Behavioral Responses to Government Surveillance,” authors Alexander J. O'Connor and Farhana Jahan write that “In the case of American Muslims subjected to government surveillance, anxiety levels are likely particularly pronounced. Even when they believe surveillance has stopped, they may see themselves as likely targets of future surveillance. Anxiety, not anger, is the typical response to such feelings of uncertainty and uncontrollability in response to the prospect of negative events.” While this article focuses specifically on how Muslim Americans feel under surveillance, this is a good summary of the general feelings many citizens feel as well. American Muslims in particular are already suspected of terrorist motives or of being guilty from the start until proven innocent, which is the opposite of.