Government Surveillance of Internet Activity Essay -- Internet Web Com

Government Surveillance of Internet Activity 1. Background Back to late 1980s in China, some young people in college or research institute had a chance to surf the Internet through a fairly low speed, roughly routed World Wide Web connection. But a big surprise for them was that the Internet was a real freeway, a freeway escaping from strict government control, a freeway for people who wanted to see but couldn’t see and who wanted to say but couldn’t say. Stepping into the 21st century after more than a decade, the Internet service in China has already been almost the latest generation in the world. However, a new surprise for those â€Å"old† surfers and new comers is that the traffic on the Internet freeway is jammed or totally blocked. Some internet writers, even anonymous ones, have been monitored and arrested. Chinese people realized that what could be seen and reached through the Internet becomes less and less, and what could be spoken on the web now leads to a huge threaten to individuals as the consequence. Why is that? Someone blames the advanced software technology which is now available to the Chinese government. It is argued that new technologies enabled the government to turn on red lights in the Internet freeway and use â€Å"web polices† to intercept violators who were chasing the freedom. Indeed, not only in China, such an observation becomes globally prominent. At a recent internet technology conference sponsored by the Internet Society in Montreal Canada (INET '96), a new discussion emerged which is focused on the increasing number of governments intent on erecting barriers to free speech on the Internet [1]. 1.1 Government surveillance exists in many countries and in a variety of forms. Normally, peo... ... Law and Technology, vol. 6, 2001. Anya Schiffrin, â€Å"Analysis: China, the Net and free speech†, CNN.com/SCI-TECH, Feb 16, 2001. William Yurcik, Zixiang Tan, â€Å"The Great (Fire) Wall of China: Internet Security and Information Policy Issues in the People's Republic of China†, Proceedings of the 1996 Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, 1996. Leonard R. Sussman, â€Å"The Internet in Flux†, Press Freedom Survey 2001, Freedom House, 2001. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, â€Å"Calculating Consequences: The Utilitarian Approach to Ethics†, http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/calculating.html, 2004. Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., Michael J. Meyer, â€Å"Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making†, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2004. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/thinking.html#utilitarian