Title of the Essay, Author, and Date

The New, Improved Digital Watchlist: Herald or Bad Omen? by David Stockdale (September 26, 2014)

Title of the Reflection

Under Surveillance

First Impression

An essay that explains the new and improved watchlist would bring good or bad news to people

Quote

There is no endpoint in this process. With the constant and rapid evolution of technological capabilities, standards must constantly be re-evaluated, both for the sake of our liberty and our security.

Reflection paper:

The progression of the digital age is indeed exemplary, but as technologies growth is rapidly developing as times goes by our privacy is also at risk. People on the government start collecting and interpreting data through the social media, for what? For a “watch list”

Digital watch list, is a list of people being monitored or consider as a suspect by being part or at least having a connection with the terrorist on line. How these people gotten into the list? Well, since data-gathering had been really increasing in an astounding rate, the government could mark you as a “terrorist” based on a single post on twitter and Facebook. The mere fact that one could be place in a watch list is scary and disturbing. It could lead to minor inconveniences to decreased employment prospect to more serious inconveniences, to be separated with your parents and families. Now what if you’re just playing around and the watcher haven’t interpreted it correctly and accurately? Sometimes, we should consider that people in the social media are also “data driven” what may be trending today could provoked them from posting silly stuffs regarding some serious issues. Some may post sarcastic statuses about it, which is really normal in the social media world where the information age is rapidly growing. A “reasonable suspicion” isn’t enough reason to plaster someone’s name to the watch list. That person’s life could be at risk in social matters, family and job life could be affected. The government must be more meticulous in investigating.

However, as technologies and the data-gathering systems became prominent, the government must acquire not just technologies that are high quality but people having a high intelligence as well. One that doesn’t just pick posts on line that is actually “suspicious” but with further evidences and investigations.

5 Things That I've learned

1.      Documents supplied by Snowden revealed that through a program called X-KEYSCORE, the NSA now has the ability to track “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet.”

2.         We may be living in a world where an algorithm that can detect suspicious content though social media activity, a world where programs routinely track and monitor individuals throughout their lives, analyzing every Facebook comment, every status update.

3.         That the development of this software builds towards a larger purpose; that is, to provide the capability to monitor sites like Twitter in real time, the ultimate goal being the automation of this process.

4.         Software to assist in monitoring social media channels.

5.         Another justification commonly used by the NSA is that they are not immediately viewing the data they gather; rather, they are merely storing it.

5 Integrative Questions

1. Why what was the reason justification commonly used by the NSA that they are not immediately viewing the data they gather; rather, they are merely storing it?
2. Why we taking the humanity out of what should be an essentially human process? 
3. What is it all for NSA agents and analysts to figure out what constitutes ‘reasonable suspicion’ in this slippery digital landscape? Currently, there is exactly zero in the way of transparency. 
4. Why the government must develop the faculties to handle such rapid evolution in an orderly manner—a tall order for a Congress with both dismal approval ratings and a mind-numbingly unproductive legislative record to match?
5. Why a Facebook Post can Land You on a Terrorist Watchlist?