Edward Joseph Snowden was born on the 21st of June 1983 and in 2013 became the focus of attention concerning his apparent bulk disclose of confidential National Security Agency documents which impeached the U.S. government of unauthorized mass citizen surveillance CITATION Ren11 l 1033 1. Snowden started employment for the NSA as a free-lancer stationed near Tokyo and finally transferred to Hawaii where he was assigned to be the NSA´s principal technologist at Booz Allan Hamilton. It was there that he copied and trafficked more than 1.7 million topmost secret documents to medias. Among the many revelations brought forth by Snowden was the existence and usage of PRISM, a bulk metadata collection program run by the NSA encompassing evidence of mass American communication surveillance CITATION Chr16 l 1033 2.
Snowden´s whistle blowing has been valued as upright by some and disapproved as unpatriotic by others. What was most noteworthy; nevertheless, about the events that transpired during Snowden´s sanctuary was the NSA´s delicate and non-assuring response to the subsequent accusations which was the foremost reason why the public developed increasingly trustful of Snowden´s claims CITATION Rob18 l 1033 3.
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Snowden’s judgement to disclose these documents, which presented the enormous exploitation of laws to covertly collect information, focused extraordinary consideration on privacy invasions and lead to global deliberations. Owing to the publication of these confidential and top-secret documents the United States Government (2013) filed a criminal protest against Snowden quoting theft of government property, unlawful announcement of national defense material and deliberate communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unapproved person CITATION Ros17 l 1033 4.
There are countless philosophies and viewpoints concerning community corporate accountability that can be applied to evaluate the ethics of the NSA. Firstly, one needs to define the individual determination and mission of the National Security Agency; to safeguard U.S. people from outside terrorizations. This conveys into question the means and utensils essential for any individual or body of government to safeguard a state against the menace of terrorism and if the very nature of such a level of safety invades with elementary citizen rights. If so, the same presence of national subsidized surveillance and safety is conveyed into question. Utilitarianism is a viewpoint that gives slight notice to the purposes of an act, as long as its significances extent to a better delight for a superior number of people. Utilitarian thinkers would contend that in the forename of terrorism avoidance and sanctuary of the American community as a whole, surveillance would be totally necessary CITATION Chr16 l 1033 2. In adding, it is unquestionably clear that the menace of terrorism against America is a safety precedence beyond all others and must be treated consequently CITATION Ros17 l 1033 4.
Utilitarianism is a philosophy that embraces no concern to the implications incurred into the person encountered with creating a verdict however relatively how the judgement will affect others CITATION htt13 l 1033 5. The NSA’s surveillance would permit a population to stay safe from the menace of terrorism and owing to the ignorance of the community on this matter, it would pass the test for “act utilitarianism”. Nevertheless, when bearing in mind that the breaking of a moral value commonly recognized by the public, would possibly lead to the uproar and general unhappiness of the community and severe effects to the corporation, it does not pass the test for “rule” utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism would be the theory more acceptable to use for the viewpoint of the NSA as the undesirable outcome of their decision incurred in the long-term and was due to the ignoring of a general accepted moral rule of deception.
These actions can also be considered from the perception of Edward Snowden himself. It is vibrant that Snowden’s act was derived from utilitarian philosophy owing to the absence of thought for the penalties that would be suffered to himself. If he had taken to stay silent and not enlighten the community about NSA doings, this would also have been pure selfishness, additional consequentialist methodology which only takes into account the effects on the decision maker. Snowden’s decision would have failed the “act” utilitarian test due to the huge scale of unhappiness that it produced. According to Quinn Utilitarianism involves the judgement of working on view how many individuals are harmfully affected against how many are positively affected, i.e. “The Greater Good”. It is thinkable that Edward Snowden felt that for entirely the worthy that the NSA schemes was having, the undesirable outcomes were extreme worse for the superior quantity of individuals. The Utilitarian viewpoint explains Edward Snowden’s activities from ethical perception and can be seen as prosperous intentioned concerning the community at large.
While bearing in mind wholly the stake holders tangled in the aftermath: Snowden, the NSA, and the overall community, it is rich to conclude that there was no single entity that came out with a satisfying or contentment resulting ending. The NSA was faced with massive scrutiny, Snowden was enforced to go into hiding, and the public turn into immediate paranoiac with fury from the leaks. Nevertheless, in relations to long stretch effect, Snowden would finally end having to deal with fugitive and permit himself to be free from the blame of surveillance awareness and would have the pleasure of knowing he proceeded morally right. The community would feel more sanctioned being rid of their ignorance regarding the NSA and the only party that would remain unhappy would be the NSA. This means that Snowden’s whistleblowing passes the “rule” utilitarian test. Some people would maintain that his deeds were absolutely not patriotic and in value rebellious.
Morals sideways, an administration worker signs many papers which initiate him not to disclose client information. There are numerous guidelines from expert cultures, contracting companies and Government booklets which outline the measures to proceeds in the occasion of a conflict of Interest. Snowden should have put extra energy to trail these measures guaranteeing official papers and emails were existing that supported up his story and that he had strained all the official channels.
In conclusion, Snowden was maybe right to be worried over the activities of the NSA but the technique he took to conveying it all to the thoughtfulness of the Mass media and overall public was entirely incorrect and appears no superior than an individual who uses the might of Social Media to attack others. If anyone can go and reveal top secret government operations, then the word secret govern documents will have no value and the safety of the population in that state might be at risk. Nevertheless, the government and other defense stakeholders must consider freedom rights of its civilians, unauthorized surveillance is somehow wrong as it takes away the public privacy.
In reference Edward Snowden´s disclosure of the confidential NSA intelligence, the debated and disagreeing subject rose concerning security, threat, freedom and how to separate the three from each other. It is unclear at this period if the battle concerning the NSA leaks is due to our existing contemporary culture partaking over time lost the enthusiasm and preference of to building decently thorough choices or if it is owing to the overall community becoming insensitive from the capability to evaluate if something is correct or incorrect in the foremost place.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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