Public Approval for Surveillance?

Last week Daniel Szwarc wrote a blog post about the Stringray cell phone capture devices, if you have not read it yet I would recommend it (http://stevenscomputersandsociety.blogspot.com/2015/04/watergate-iireturn-of-tap.html). His post along with recent class discussion over how much the public is informed and or gets to vote on the power of the government to conduct surveillance on the people, is what led me to this post. This article from Ars Technica that I saw linked on Reddit caught my eye because it seems that our opinions in class reflect at least some of the opinions in the rest of the nation. Basically one of the California state senators is trying to push through a bill that would require a city or county government to publicly approve the use of Stingray devices. The bill even passed the first round of voting it needs to become a law.

This may seem all well and good, but the bill has some strong opposition. Local law enforcement as well as some civil liberties groups are against this bill; although, probably for different reasons. The article mentions that the civil liberties groups would like to see a stronger law, one that includes statewide standards on the use of the Stingray devices and other IMSI catchers like them. (An IMSI is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity; a number that follows your cell phone wherever it goes.) Law enforcement was not further mentioned in the article but my guess is that they are completely against this law and the idea of regulating these devices in general.

One of the biggest concerns for me about finding this article is the comment it received on Reddit. As of writing this there is only one comment there which says "Laws don't apply to law enforcement, don't you know?" If they did not apply then there would not be opposition from law enforcement regarding this bill. They still may find loopholes and get around the law or even blatantly ignore it but depending on the scale on which they do so there could be repercussions for law enforcement. My main problem with this is if everyone starts to have this attitude toward law and law enforcement in general than society will eventually give up against government surveillance.

I think I would like to see a law like this get passed. I think more openness about how the government is using these surveillance devices would be beneficial, but like myself and others have mentioned in class; when it comes to security there is a tricky balance between public knowledge and acceptance and secrecy and effectiveness. What I think would do it for me is for the government to either publicly prove how effective its surveillance projects are at keeping the nation safe or to start passing laws like the one mentioned in this article. I want to know beyond a reasonable doubt that these secret programs are actually keeping us safe, or I want to have a say in whether or not they happen.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/new-california-bill-would-require-local-approval-for-stingray-use/