Comparative Analyse of America and European - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Comparative Analyse of America and European. Answer: Wiretapping and eavesdropping happen to be one of the oldest means of peeking into someones private conversations. This technique though might appear helpful in order to investigate criminal cases; it often gives rise to ethical issues like how much freedom should be allowed to an individual about eavesdropping on someone elses conversation (Wang and Dai 2017). In addition, miscreants to peek into the private space of random people often misuse this technology. This essay is going to focus on the technology of wiretapping itself and the ethical issues that come into being because of this technology. Background: Wiretapping and eavesdropping serve as means of helping tools in criminal cases. Wiretapping consists of involving subtle means by which personal telephone conversations held by individuals can be heard and taped. This mainly helps in getting hold of secretive criminal conversations that can be harmful for the nation. This tool is used mainly the intelligence bureau department of various countries (Sharma and Rawat 2015). Electronic eavesdropping works mainly by inserting a bug inside premises, which are private in order to record the private conversations held there. It can also be done by wiring a government informant within whose earshot the record worthy conversation is taking place. These techniques are mainly used by law enforcement officials who to investigate organized crime and other counterespionage. This technology of wiretapping has been existing since the days of the introduction of wired conversations (Ritchie 2014). After the telegraphs and telephones were invented in the respective years of 1837 and 1876, this means of wiretapping and eavesdropping had been used by private investigators to get hold of private data for their clients (Ritchie 2014). Back then business personals also used this technology for corporate purposes. However, the rampant use of wiretapping by the law enforcement officials led to the introduction of the Prohibition Era, which in general disapproved the use of wired technology in order to eavesdrop peoples personal conversation no matter what purpose they served. Ethical issues those are associated with wiretapping and eavesdropping: By the term ethics, it is generally meant the philosophical study on matters of morality. In order to have a society in which people know what is good from bad and act accordingly, it is important to have a proper sense of ethics (Chonko 2016). Ethics is what that helps in building a healthy society with mutual sense of moral values. In this age of technology, with the innovation of each new technology it is quite natural that ethical issues will be aroused. The technology of incepting conversations through wires also posses certain ethical dilemmas. The first ethical issue that this kind of technology gives rise to is the issue related to the right to privacy (Chonko 2016). Each and every individual has their fundamental right to privacy and it is arguable that to what extent the government can cross that right. It has often been the case that a person is wiretapped simply out of suspicion but at the end it is proved that he is not guilty of any act that can be tagged as harmful. No w the ethical question of violating ones private space rises and the man can easily claim that his privacy has been violated unnecessarily and the government should be liable to answer him (Nill et al. 2015). Moreover, with the first and easy availability of technology, it is not only the government officials who are capable of using this technology. People who have no need for it other than peeking into other peoples personal loves often use it. For example, an over curious neighbour, who us good with technology can easy tape the phone of the person living adjacent to his house and listen to all the private conversations he has with his known people. This seriously violates the right to privacy and this is one of the major ethical issues that is associated with this technology (Nill et al. 2015). Act Utilitarianism and Wiretapping and Eavesdropping: The pioneers of the theory are John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham (Crimmins 2017). The basic principle of the theory is that an act can only be considered good if the benefit done by it exceeds the amount of harm it causes. In a similar way, according to this theory an act will be considered bad if the overall harm caused by it exceeds the benefit that it brings in. This theory also proclaims that the utility of any given thing depends on the amount of happiness it brings on an individual or on a community (Crimmins 2017). The theory in its very basis starts with a hedonistic approach as the pioneer of the theory Bentham believed that human beings in their very nature happen to be hedonistic creatures. This implies he believed that if human beings are given an opportunity they will definitely reach out to seek pleasure and avoid pain in all the possible cases (Goetghebeur et al. 2015). This ethical theory if being viewed in the context of government monitoring a conversation as well as getting all the details out of it, there is bound to be both positive and negative consequences that will come out of the act. It can be of no doubt that the governmental surveillance act in most of the cases happen to bring out effects those are positive for the nation. For example, due to proper monitoring or wiretapping by the government, many nasty terrorist attacks may be prevented on time and lives of hundreds can be saved (Esau 2016). Also, if the government can wiretap the phone lines of proper people illegal business and trafficking can also be prevented. Wiretapping and eavesdropping can also help in solving international crimes as well. Till this point the act of wiretapping completely agrees with the ethical theory of Act Utilitarianism. However, there are points where the ethical issues rise and the act of wiretapping violates the theory of Act Utilitarianism. For example, it has often been the case where innocent citizens have been wrongly convicted of criminal suspicion and this has led to government bodies intruding into their private spaces and investigating via means of taping their personal phones as well as eavesdropping their personal conversations (Sengar, Wang and Iranmanesh, 2014). But, as the citizens were innocent such investigations led to nothing but only the harassment and eventual release of the convicted citizens. This is where this act of wiretapping violates the ethical rules set down by Act Utilitarianism. Because, the government detaining innocent citizens of the country or violating into their private spaces bring out no good for anyone and it is only harm that is being caused by such an act. In a number of cases wiretapping had led innocent people being put to jail and then released which is a severe ethical issue because though the detained citizens had been released without any charge, the psychological trauma that the detention might have caused remain irreparable. The essay can thus be concluded by stating that wiretapping and eavesdropping like any other technological innovation do violate certain ethical standards. However, the most alarming violation that can be caused is not the violation caused by government misjudgements but the ones that random people because of getting access to cheap technology can cause by peeking into the lives of random people. This issue cannot be eradicated or solved until people in general understand the ethical standards that must be followed in order for mass benefit. References: Chonko, L., 2016. Ethical theories. Arlington: University of Texas.Accessed,10, pp.1-5. Crimmins, J.E. ed., 2017.The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of utilitarianism. Bloomsbury Publishing. Esau, L.A., 2016. The Correlation between Wiretapping and Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis of American and European Societal Views on Government Surveillance.ILSA J. Int'l Comp. L.,23, p.55. Goetghebeur, M.M., Wagner, M., Bond, K. and Hofmann, B., 2015. Analysis Of Ethical Theories And Principles Embedded In Holistic Mcda: A Primer To Ethics-Based Appraisal Of Value In Healthcare.Value in Health,18(3), p.A101. Nill, A., Aalberts, R.J., Li, H. and Schibrowsky, J., 2015. New telecommunication technologies, big data and online behavioral advertising: do we need an ethical analysis?.Handbook on Ethics and Marketing, p.387. Ritchie, D.A., 2014.Doing oral history. Oxford University Press. Sengar, H., Wang, H. and Iranmanesh, S.A., 2014, March. Wiretap-proof: What they hear is not what you speak, and what you speak they do not hear. InProceedings of the 4th ACM conference on Data and application security and privacy(pp. 345-356). ACM. Sharma, R.K. and Rawat, D.B., 2015. Advances on security threats and countermeasures for cognitive radio networks: A survey.IEEE Communications Surveys Tutorials,17(2), pp.1023-1043. Wang, Q. and Dai, H.N., 2017, June. On modeling of eavesdropping behavior in underwater acoustic sensor networks. InA World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM), 2017 IEEE 18th International Symposium on(pp. 1-3). IEEE.