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IS THE GOVERNMENT ALLOWED TO SPY ON US?

Question: Does the government have the right to spy on you?

Answer: Sometimes, but not always.

Governments can collect information for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting serious crimes, and sometimes for preventing them. So sometimes police and security services can listen to phone conversations or see someone’s internet history

However, with the spread of the internet and the increase in threats from international terrorism, governments have become more able and willing to ‘spy’ on people. The existence of extensive surveillance activities came to light in 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked very large amounts of information about the United States National Security Agency (NSA), and its secret and unprecedented collection of ‘metadata’ (essentially data about data) on huge numbers of people who are suspected of no crime.  

Click on the links below (as well as the video) to discover the human rights implications of this mass surveillance.

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