Communications Surveillance, Privacy and Its Ethical Implications Research Paper

Communications Surveillance, Privacy and Its Ethical Implications - Research Paper Example So in order to deal with serious issues communications surveillance becomes essential but it is not ethical. This paper also discusses the ethical validity of communications surveillance in light of Kant’s ethical theory. Introduction It is an admitted fact that in the past few years, surveillance and observation of individuals' communications have been turning out to be more common, more unsystematic and more enveloping, same as our dependence on electronic communications grown. Additionally, almost all the major global laws and regulations on human rights ensure protection of the right of individuals to be free from unnecessary surveillance. On the other hand, this assurance has trickled down into nationwide legal or official requirements ensuring the privacy of communications. In the majority of democratic countries, surveillance of verbal, telephone and digital communications are applied through law enforcement or intelligence agencies simply after approved by a judge, as well as simply in the inquiry of serious crimes (Privacy International, 2012). Up till now government agencies carry on to lobby for improved surveillance facilities and capabilities, mainly as technologies transform. In addition, communications surveillance has gone beyond the digital and Internet communications. In fact, in the majority of countries, security agencies have forced internet service providers as well as telecommunications firms to keep an eye on users’ communications. Also, the many of these actions are performed under the uncertain authorized base as well as remain unidentified to the public (Privacy International, 2012). This paper presents an overview of Surveillance of communications. The basic aim of this research is to analyze the legal, privacy and ethical implications of communications surveillance. Communications Surveillance: An overview In the past few years, telecommunications and computing technologies have seen radical changes. In fact, the typic al acceptance of modern communication platforms such as e-mail, mobile telephones and the Web as well as the ever-increasing adoption and implementation of peer-to-peer Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony have considerably changed and improved the way people communicate in the 21st century. In addition, huge increases in computing and data storage facilities and capabilities have provided governments with a wide variety of innovative tools and techniques for eavesdropping on these communications (Brown, 2009). A lot of organizations make effective use of technology to basically transform the way business tasks are carried out, by making use of technology in ways that break the traditional rules of carrying out business activities. For instance, Kmart and Wal-mart are making use of teleconferencing to facilitate headquarters-based merchandisers to provide store managers in the field with direction and recommendation, facilitating them to unite local programs with business objectives (Hers chel & Andrews, 1997) Surveillance is defined as an operation or an event during which the actions of a particular individual are monitored and documented. In this scenario, communications s