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Michael Goldsmith Mrs. Marquart ENC 1102 22 January 2013 Exposed Private Knowledge Is ones private life really all that private? Is what one deems their own, really just thattheirs? The people of the United States should ponder over these questions, for the answer may surprise them. The Dalai Lama is a predominant Buddhist leader from Tibet. In the article Ethics and the New Genetics, he discusses how technological capabilities have begun to move past our capacity for moral reasoning. This is such the case with the United States government spying on its peoples emails, private life, and computer activities. Without a doubt, society needs a moral compass as to guide us on the issue of private knowledge and security. Lets begin by laying a foundation for what really goes on in the United States in regards to private life and security. The United States is one of, if not the most predominant leaders in technology innovation. We invent new advanced technologies on a daily basis. One such invention, is that of encryption software. We use this in such things as emails, debit/credit cards, and in businesses. They help us hide private information from people that should not be laying eyes on them. However, the U.S. government has found a way around these encrypted files. The NSA, or National Security Agency, uses software to decode these private files. The NSA has been doing this for years, but it has just been recently released that this is the case. There has been a huge uproar concerning the NSA reading our emails and private information. When talking about private companies doing things in secret and not telling its customers, the Dalai

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Lama asserted, The gulf between the scientific community [government] and the general public may be caused in part by the lack of transparency in the companies developing these products [government] (137). This quote relates perfectly to the fact that the NSA is not transparent at all. One could relate the companies/scientific community and the general public to the United States government and the general public. The only reason we found out about the NSA reading our private emails was the result of a leak of information that was not meant to happen. The bottom line is that our private information should be private! When our personal conversations and information become easily known to the government, then what is to stop our world from becoming an Orwellian, Big Brother society? The Dalai Lama claims, Too much of our current focus is on the feasibility of a particular technique, its immediate or short-term results and side effects, and what effect it may have on individual liberty (139). The Dalai Lama believes an over-abundance of our focus is on these issues. However this is not a bad thing, because we need to realize that our individual liberty is very important. Our liberty as a society is dwindled when the NSA can read our private property (emails). To put it another way, we need a moral compass. We need to know what is right, and what is wrong. When it comes to the NSA spying on our private lives through our emails, the government needs to know what is ethical. Getting into our information via emails is very unethical. It is our intellectual property, and should not be tainted by the protectors of the U.S. The Dalai Lama contends, We must be willing to be revolted when science- or for that matter any human activity- crosses the line of human decency, and we must fight to retain the sensitivity that is otherwise so easily eroded (139). We must fight for our rights. Our right is to have freedom of expression and freedom of private information. It is unconstitutional for the

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government to spy on us in this way. A moral compass would say these acts are extremely wrong and unethical. As mentioned before, if we let this continue, will our nation turn into a Big Brother society filled with the government breathing down our necks every second of the day? What will be the future of this advancement in technology? One can only imagine what will be the result. The government needs to nip this in the bud now, before the public sector becomes the controller of all our day to day activities. Is it too rash to think this way? No, not at all. It is a vicious snowball effect that will start off by the NSA reading our emails to the United States government controlling our every move. A perfect quote for this is, Todays challenges are so great- and the dangers of the misuse of technology so global, entailing a potential catastrophe for all humankind- that I feel we need a moral compass we can use collectively without getting bogged down in doctrinal differences (Lama 139). However, one can argue that we need this governmental agency to read our emails for safety purposes. This is not true, there has to be other ways to go about this. When one goes on his or her email account knowing that the government could be spying on them, it hinders his/ her freedom to speak freely. Emails are supposed to be private, and should stay that way. Is nothing sacred anymore? What is to say that the ways of hacking our emails is not already in the private sector? The Dalai Lama declares, Any new scientific breakthrough that offers commercial prospects attracts tremendous interest and investment from both the public sector and private enterprise (133). This just shows that just as the government can hack our emails, private businesses can do, or will do, the same. This can be extremely horrific, the NSA may be doing it for our personal protection, but what do private enterprises do it for? The answer to that will always be money. When money comes into play, all hell breaks loose.

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To put in lay mans terms, The NSA (Unite States government) is hacking our emails and private information. This is unethical, immoral, and unconstitutional. We need a moral compass to guide the private and public sectors in how they should behave, concerning the citizens of the U.S. private knowledge. We need to stop this from happening, before what we hear each morning when we wake up is Big Brother is Watching You.

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Work Cited Lama, Dalai. "Ethics and the New Genetics." Emerging: Contemporary readings for Writers. 2nd ed. Bedford/ St. Martin's: Barclay Barrios, 2013. 133-140. Print.