Essay should go beyond the obvious and be written at a graduate level making sure to properly cite sources according to APA style guidelines.

Your essay must be a minimum of 1,200 words (excluding the title, abstract, and reference page), but may not exceed 2,500 words and must use three academic resources to support your position.

Any resources including but not limited to journals, magazine, and/or books must be properly cited using the APA style.

Big Brother

Electronic surveillance has become a controversial practice in the United States and elsewhere. The fear is that civil liberties can become jeopardized by unregulated interception of telephone conversations, e-mail, and telefacsimiles.

Detractors argue that government use of these technologies can conceivably move well beyond their legitimate application against threats from crime, espionage, and terrorism.

Without strict protocols to rein in these technologies, a worst-case scenario envisions state intrusions into the everyday activities of innocent civilians.

Should this happen, critics foresee a time when privacy, liberty, and personal security become values of the past.

Discuss, from YOUR perspective, the following questions in a written essay:

• How serious is the threat from abuses in the use of new technologies?

• How should new technologies be regulated? Can they be regulated?

• Is it sometimes necessary to sacrifice a few freedoms to protect national security and to ensure the long- term viability of civil liberty?

• Should the same protocols be used for domestic electronic surveillance and foreign surveillance? Why?

• What is the likelihood that new surveillance technologies will be used as tools of repression by authoritarian regimes in the near future?