Since the founding of this country, surveillance has been allowed but with the unspoken rule that it was not to be done inside of the U.S. This changed when the PATRIOT Act was passed in 2001. Under this law, U.S. law enforcement agencies (such as the CIA and FBI) were allowed to monitor private information of U.S. citizens in an attempt to protect against terrorists. Since then, various agencies, such as the NSA (National Security Agency) and FBI have been secretly monitoring information such as phone calls, web history and business records. Another thing this law allows is for these agencies to get National Security Letters (a type of subpoena) without going to court. These are sent of to casinos and other organizations (such as Choicepoint and Lexis Nexis) that gather terabytes (one thousand gigabytes) of information on U.S. citizens. This can range from spending habits, to who a person calls to where they vacation and beyond.
The response of an ethical democratic citizen would be to allow these information searches, to a point. If the agencies that are rooting out terrorists have the information they need, they can more effectively do their job. If they more effectively do their job, then that means it is less likely that there will be another terrorist attack. This could save lives. However, the Patriot Act as it is now is not ethical. One of the ideas this country is founded on is privacy. The Fourth Amendment guarantees us safety from searches and seizures unless there is a warrant, which requires probable cause. Many people’s information is being taken simply because they are in a certain area. Take the at&t telephone company for example. The NSA collected vast amounts of information from the company's system for no specific reason. This is not probable cause. Furthermore, the defense agencies can now bypass the courts and do what the president orders. This unrestrained and unregulated power of the president violates the checks and balances set down in our Constitution.
In conclusion, information gathering is okay so long as it does not too far overstep the boundaries of civil rights. It is ethical to allow the gathering because it could possibly save the country from another attack. However, the ethical democratic citizen would push for a reform of the Patriot Act to make it more constitutional.
