Who Are You Spying On?

It seems these days that everyone is spying on someone. It’s just the way things are.

Chinese military officials are charged with hacking American corporations. They deny the allegations, describing cyber attacks as a universal problem and, in their defense, citing “examples of National Security Agency, (N.S.A.) spying on corporations around the world.” (The New York Times, May 20, 2014)

Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, accuses America of eavesdropping on her cellphone and calls our President to ask for an explanation of our surveillance practices against Germany. President Obama denies the telephone monitoring.

Edward Snowden, rightly or wrongly, puts his life on the line to let the world know about the all-inclusive, extensive surveillance practices of the N.S.A.

“I don’t want public attention,” Snowden tells a Guardian reporter, “because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing.” (the Guardian, June, 2013.)

At this point, the U. S. is scrambling, “to distinguish between economic and security surveillance,” according to Attorney General, Eric Holder. (the Guardian, May, 2014)

The consensus seems to be that every country is spying on every other country in every way possible, 24/7. The current American stance is that it is “out of bounds to use state-run intelligence assets to seek commercial advantage.” (The New York Times, May19, 2014) We are doing some hasty and fancy footwork in our attempts to define “legal” spying.

Anyone who watches television with any regularity is aware of the video surveillance prevalent in our cities. We can be seen and found. What we buy online or almost anywhere is recorded for posterity. Our credit card information is totally available and whomever we call on our cellphones can easily be discovered. By those who know how to do such things, all our emails can be accessed.

A year ago my bank---who shall not be named—lost all of my information in cyberspace. They sent me a letter of apology and a year’s free identity theft protection.

Is all this worth pondering?  I think so.

Recently I decided to Google myself. Because I wrote for The Fairfield Citizen News for many years, I knew there would be references to articles written, where I live--that sort of thing. Now this blog is listed as well. That’s fine.

But when I was offered an opportunity to register for a program that would reveal my “criminal record” I blanched. My criminal record? Help! Do you suppose that means that the ticket I got two weeks ago for parking in the church lot when I went to New York is recorded and available for anyone to see?

Is there nothing sacred?  

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Thoughts and Prayers

Once again our prayers are with the Nigerian people who lost loved ones in the recent blood bath in the central Nigerian city of Jos, where, at the count two days ago, 118 were killed and 45 wounded.  We pray for peace in Nigeria.

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Thank you all who read Life Opening Up! Your attention and your responses keep me inspired to write.

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