CASE 1 - Do NOT Read This Case! The NSA's Surveillance Program
Questions to Consider
1. What do you think about this government surveillance program, which allows the NSA to work with popular service providers like Facebook, Google, and Skype to collect personal information without the user's knowledge? On the one hand, terrorists frequently use the Internet to plan attacks. On the other hand, such surveillance is clearly an invasion of individual privacy.
2. The memo to employees might seem silly to some. But the government has a broad policy on not allowing users to look at classified information on unclassified computers. Why? Unclassified computers can be infiltrated by viruses and spyware, which allow others to capture anything that goes across the screen. (The CIA and the NSA do not allow cell phones inside their buildings'secure zones.) If you were a manager, how would you handle this situation?
3. Perhaps nothing more sharply frames the problem of accountability in modern government than determining how to safeguard the personal communications of individual Americans while preserving national security. What kind of accountability system would you design to find the balance?
CASE 2 - Snow Removal in the Blizzard of 2010: Who Gets Plowed First?
Questions to Consider
1. Assume you are the head of the department of public works of your county. You're in charge of snow removal. What streets would you plow first?
2. What would you say to residents whose streets end up at the bottom of the plowing priority list? After all, they will tell you: they pay taxes, too!
3. Following the blizzard, Arlington County considered an ordinance that would require local residents to join with the county in the snow removal effort. In particular, "the ordinance first would require all property owners to remove snow and ice adjacent to their property, creating a path that is a minimum of thirty-six inches wide (to accommodate wheelchairs, strollers, and adults with children in hand) within twenty-four hours after the snow stops falling, when accumulations are less than six inches, and within thirty-six hours when six or more inches of snow accumulate. Failure to comply with the ordinance could result in a civil penalty." Would you favor the passage of such an ordinance, which brings individual citizens into a partnership with government in providing public services? What would you do for older and disabled residents, who might not have the physical strength to shovel their sidewalks? Just how far should a government's reach into an individual's property go?
4. One official of a Midwest town once admitted that the town had a special snow removal plan for election day. If it snowed, he said, there was a plan to make sure that the "right" neighborhoods- those most likely to vote for the mayor-were plowed first. The other neighborhoods- those most likely to vote for the mayor's opponent-would have to wait much longer. Do you think that this is a proper use of government's power, of the way that administrative decisions shape values in society?
CASE 3 - Google Earth versus Privacy in Riverhead, New York
Questions to Consider
1. Do you think there was anything wrong with the town's decision to use Google Earth to detect individuals who had broken local laws by installing pools without obtaining the required permits?
2. How should local officials, like Leroy Barnes, be held accountable for their actions?
3. Sam Adams, in addition to brewing beer, also helped lead the revolt that culminated in the Boston Tea Party, during which colonists tossed tea into the harbor to protest the power of the English king. What do you think he and his fellow revolutionaries would think about the use of Google Earth to detect lawbreakers?
Attachment:- Cases.rar