Spying on Citizens Assignment
For this assignment, you will research issues related to governments spying on their own citizens. In particular, you will look at some surveillance issues with the United States government and how intelligence agencies can work around domestic privacy laws using alliances such as Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes.
Assignment Information
The application areas for this assignment are national security, intelligence, and politics. That said, anyone with an interest in these topics is welcome to select this assignment, regardless of major.
Prerequisites
- You should be able to perform Internet searches to locate sources relevant to the topics covered by this assignment.
- You should be able to utilize CCU Library resources to aid in research.
- You should be able to think critically about the claims made in sources that you find.
- You should be able to create a logically organized presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint or LibreOffice Impress.
- You should be able to record a video presentation by narrating slides while recording a screencast.
- You should be able to edit the recorded video and upload the result to Moodle.
Special Notes if You Hold a Security Clearance
Some of the sources that you will find when researching the topics posed by this assignment consist of leaked government documents or information derived from such leaks. While federal agencies or the President typically declassify such documents after they have been leaked, there is a slight chance of encountering a document that is still classified despite being widely distributed on the Internet.
If you currently hold a security clearance, use caution when researching current events related to government surveillance. Should you have current or prior legitimate access to classified information related to surveillance, I would advise selecting a different Extension Assignment option in order to reduce the risk of mentioning something that you do not have authorization to disclose (even if that information is already public knowledge – the federal government is not known for exercising common sense).
Background
Following World War II, the Cold War emerged between the two resulting superpowers: the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). From 1945 until the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991, the Cold War dominated international politics. Tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries at times threatened the existence of mankind, as the total quantity of nuclear weapons available for use would have been more than enough to destroy all the world’s population centers and leave the rest of the planet suffering from radioactive fallout and nuclear winter.
During the Cold War, the USA and USSR consistently tried to one-up each other in terms of technology. While the initial focus of much of this technology was on weapons systems, there were also bragging rights to be had on the world stage. Conveniently, many of the weapons technologies were repurposed for other uses. For example, missile technology improved manned rocket systems, spy satellites with wide-angle cameras became weather satellites, and so forth.
One other legacy of the Cold War is that each side had a definite interest in knowing what the other side was doing in secret, so as to steal technologies from one another and avoid surprises from completely new weapons systems developed by the other. The predictable consequence was espionage, or spying. Intelligence agencies from both sides (e.g. the CIA on the US side and the KGB on the USSR side) recruited spies to infiltrate the other side. In turn, each side also developed counterintelligence capabilities, which focused on identifying the other side’s agents and stopping information leaks.
When the Cold War ended, the intelligence agencies and counterintelligence operations were not disbanded. Thanks to considerable investment, lobbying, and the fear of new potential future enemies (for example, China), the United States has maintained a substantial intelligence-gathering network consisting of multiple agencies with three-letter acronyms. On paper, these agencies are supposed to be protecting the country from terrorists and other rogue actors, including potential emerging threats at the nation-state level.
However, as we have seen in revelations leaked by employees and contractors of some of these agencies, considerable investment has been made in trying to be able to monitor everyone, everywhere, all the time. From Edward Snowden’s leaks regarding the National Security Agency (NSA), many of which were eventually officially acknowledged, we know that systems have been developed to monitor global Internet traffic.
We also know that law enforcement routinely uses technology in the process of trying to catch criminals, but they do so in a way that ensnares innocent bystanders. For example, the use of so-called geofence warrants to identify all mobile phones within a given geographical area will result in information about potential suspects along with the information of ordinary, uninvolved individuals who happened to be in the same area at the same time. Similarly, IMSI-catcher technologies (such as Harris Corporation’s StingRay) ensnare the private communications of innocent bystanders at the same time as the communications of the targets of investigation.
Much of the ability of law enforcement to undertake surveillance in this manner is a legacy of the counterintelligence missions assigned to these agencies during the Cold War. In particular, the FBI is explicitly tasked with counterintelligence in addition to its regular law enforcement missions. Laws passed by Congress are supposed to limit the scope of surveillance against ordinary American citizens in order to preserve constitutional rights (for example, the Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure).
Of course, the key phrase here is supposed to limit. We have seen revelations of abuses of these technologies when applied to innocent citizens, and the ways that some of these surveillance systems are designed to work are unable to separate a legitimate law enforcement or national security target from a bystander in real time. In addition, the limiting laws typically only apply to surveillance of US citizens – citizens of other countries can be lawfully surveilled.
Similar laws exist in other Western countries, in which surveillance of foreigners is acceptable but surveillance of citizens is not. Thus, one creative approach the intelligence agencies take to avoid these domestic spying limits is to have another country spy on their citizens, while they spy on the first country’s citizens. Information resulting from this surveillance exchange is then shared, allowing an end-run around the laws designed to limit domestic spying activities. Examples of such intelligence alliances include Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes, all of which involve the USA. These legacies of the Cold War continue to operate today, ostensibly supporting the War on Terror and other issues of international importance.
Requirements
Begin by conducting research into governments spying on innocent civilians. Focus on the United States government and the governments in the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes alliances. Consider in particular the use of technology to spy on individuals as opposed to human methods (like agents hiding in the bushes watching people). As you conduct your research, think about ways the private sector can be co-opted into data gathering for government agencies.
Prepare a presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint or LibeOffice Impress that addresses the following issues:
- What are some ways that a government can spy on its citizens using technology?
- How can private sector data collection be used as an end-run around laws that prevent a government from spying on its own citizens?
- What laws and protections are supposed to be in place to prevent United States intelligence agencies (such as the NSA or CIA) from spying on United States citizens?
- How can United States intelligence agencies sidestep laws restricting domestic spying by entering into agreements with other countries?
- What is the Five Eyes alliance? Who are the members?
- What is the Nine Eyes alliance? Who are the members?
- What is the Fourteen Eyes alliance? Who are the members?
Cite at least 8 sources in your presentation. Limit Wikipedia articles to 1 or 2 of these sources, and try not to cite secondary sources that duplicate primary ones. For example, you only need one source to confirm the existence of the XKeyscore system (which the NSA publicly acknowledged). Two sources that say the same thing about the system would be duplicates, though two sources that describe two different aspects of the system would not be duplicates.
Record a video in which you present your work either by creating a screencast on your computer or by using your cell phone. Aim for a presentation length of 15-20 minutes.
Note that you are free to take any position you would like on the issues of intelligence sharing and domestic surveillance. Since I’m teaching a class in digital privacy and have to keep everyone awake, my writeup naturally takes the position of the privacy advocate. However, your view of intelligence gathering and sharing might be different. There are legitimate reasons for our government and our allies to engage in intelligence gathering – threats from both terrorists and other nation-states are real. Your grade for this assignment is based on doing the research and answering the questions posed. It is not based on your position regarding the reasonableness of the current system or the adequacy of its safeguards and oversight.
Grading
Please review the Spying on Citizens Rubric prior to uploading your video presentation. This rubric explains how this assignment option will be graded and can be used as a checklist to ensure that you have completed all the required parts of the assignment.
