Maryanne Martini

Padgett
English 102
February 28, 2016
Privacy in the Twenty-First Century
Inquiry: Should the Federal Government be more concerned over the privacy of American
citizens or should our privacy be taken away to ensure the safety of the country as a
whole?
Proposed thesis: The privacy of United States citizens should be a larger factor over the federal
governments surveillance of data.
"EDITORIAL - Apple vs. the FBI." Record-Journal (Meriden, CT) 29 Feb. 2016, Main: A04.
NewsBank.
The central claim in this article written by a writer from the Record-Journal, is about the
aftermath of the Edward Snowden leaks that have changed the way that Americans look
at the government. Before the Snowden leaks American citizens had no idea they were
being spied on by the government from their cell phones. The writer analyzes how since
Americans have received this unsettling news that people have become less trustful of the
government and their true agenda. The writer discusses the argument between Apple and
the FBI that is about unlocking an iPhone of a terrorist after Apple changed their security
systems and saw the NSAs spying, in the writers words, as a marketing opportunity.
This change in the system made it nearly impossible for hackers and the FBI to get into
the updated iPhones. The writer then discusses how Apple has refused court orders to
unlock the iPhone because Apple is fighting to protect the civil liberties of its

customers. The writer makes sound arguments about how new legislation is needed to
clarify this murky area that is brought upon by the twenty-first century. This source is a
recently written article in a Connecticut town newspaper. I found this peer-review source
from the NewsBank database after researching articles about national security limits.
Policinski, Gene. "Where are privacy, national security limits in new Digital Age?." Hays Daily
News, The (KS) 28 Feb. 2016, A: 04. NewsBank.
In this news article by Gene Policinski in the Hays Daily News, the argument is about
how the main values in the First Amendment are at stake in this new digital age that is the
twenty-first century. The main example in the case is about Apple versus the FBI in
which the writer says is the first step in figuring out where new boundaries that protect
core freedoms will exist in a wireless, digital age. Policinski argues about government
control and how while this case might pertain to terrorism there have been instances in
the past where the government has abused its power for no reason. He is referring to the
Edward Snowden leaks that have started the controversy on how far the government
should be able to go in a digital age where every move can be tracked. This source came
straight from the NewsBank database that is found on the librarys website. The article
also cites many court cases through the years that have battled with freedom of speech
directed towards computers and scripts and laws that have been taken to the Supreme
Court.
Chideya, Farai. "The Big Issues Of The 2016 Campaign." FiveThirtyEight. N.p., 19 Nov. 2015.
Chideya argues in this article about how there are many differing opinions in the
upcoming presidential election over Privacy and Data Security and how it should be
handled. This article comes from a longer article about other problems that have been a
big debate such as education and healthcare. The article explains the relationship between

the intrusion of privacy of cellphone metadata and the Patriot Act. The article also
discusses what has happened since Edward Snowden released the classified information
from the surveillance program. The U.S. Senate has passed the Cybersecurity Sharing
Act which the writer shows disapproval of because it did not solve any of the trust
problems that the American citizens now have with the government. The writers use of
quoting political power figures creates a broad sense of opinions and adds to the depth of
the article. The article is from a news website that focuses on opinion poll analysis,
politics, and economics which is a good source when looking for different views of a
topic.
Vogue, Ariane De. "Court Rules NSA Program Illegal." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d.
The source comes straight from the news website CNN that is owned by the Turner
Broadcasting System and known for its twenty-four-hour news channel and website. This
article was written on May 7, 2015 after a federal appeals court ruled that the telephone
metadata collection program is illegal under the Patriot Act. The writer writes briefly, as
it is a news article, about the back story of when the metadata collection program was
started after the September 11th attacks on the United States. The writer, Ariane Vogue,
writes that the Court did not address the larger question of whether the program is
constitutional. This argument is backed up when Vogue explains the long-secret phone
program citing the official court documents that explained what the program entailed.
While this phone program was reportedly only used for counter-terrorism investigation
one might be concerned over the fact that the government can see who American citizens
are calling, the length of the call, and the person who originated the call. This is a trusted

source because it comes from a news website that is trusted and Vogue writes many news
articles that are associated with politics and the government.
Perez, Evan, and Tim Hume. "Apple Opposes Order to Hack Gunman's Phone." CNN. Cable
News Network, n.d.
The source comes from a news article that I found off of CNN which is a website with a
twenty-four-hour news cycle so the article has been updated twice since it was first
published. It was first published on February 18, 2016 after Apple opposed a judges
order to help the FBI break into the iPhone of a suspected terrorist from the San
Bernardino, California attacks. There are two writers because Evan Perez wrote the initial
article and Tim Hume wrote the updated version of the article. This is common for a
news website like CNN for there to be two writers because it is such a big corporation.
The writer cited Apples CEO, Tim Cook, about his reasoning against complying with
the court orders to unlock the iPhone of the reported terrorist. The writer is reporting on
facts leaving out bias on the subject, but for a research paper facts are the best kind of
argument so it is a helpful source. The most important part of this article for my research
paper is when the writer discusses that the reason Apple is not helping the government is
because it will open a back door to getting information off of anyone who has an
iPhone. The code that Apple would have to create could get in the wrong hands of a
hacker or another terrorist that could be far worse than not knowing what is on one
suspected terrorists iPhone. This source is reporting to the people who would be effected
by this back door way of handling breaking into an iPhone.
Bagley, Andrew William. "Don't Be Evil: The Fourth Amendment in the Age of Google,
National Security, and Digital Papers and Effects." Albany Law Journal of Science &
Technology 21.1 (2011): 153-192.

This source comes from the Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology and this
particular writer is Andrew Bagley. I researched the Journal and it is well known and a
writer who is published in it is a well-certified writer. Bagley discusses the Fourth
Amendment law and how concepts of the law have different expectations of online
privacy. While this is a broad statement, the writer focuses in on the legal issues that have
arisen following the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program. The writer also discusses
Congress push to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that needs to be
updated in this new digital age. I think that this source is interesting because the writer is
interested in the third party online privacy service providers that companies like
Facebook and iTunes use. The article cites many news websites that reported on the
topics and books that are focused on the law around the Fourth Amendment and publicprivate companies.

1: The inquiry question is a little bit tricky because the writer is not taking any sides but
is neutral and makes the reader curious about which side is writer is on. The thesis is
unclear about the problem proposed in the paper, which still draws some attention on the
articles. MLA format was used following the norms so there are no worries about that as
it applies to the bibliography.
2: Some of the sources are unclear about the articles information but the summaries
made by the writer brings out all the ideas and arguments, clarifying the source
objectives, which ultimately gives a clearer picture as to what is being argued.

3: The words in the summary are good, meaning the ideas and arguments being made by
the writer are well supported by the good quotations. The article is direct about the main
point and makes sense regarding the authors opinion.
4: The sides taken within the argument made by the writer are going back and forward
leaving the reader in between sides. Although the government should get information for
the citizens security or either the privacy rights of citizens should be protected, needs to
be clarified.