Issue 619 Surveillance Smell Test June 24, 2015

In an Economist article I read it outlined a smell test of sorts so that people would know if the government is going too far with it’s spying on its own people.  Here it is.

The Smell test:  Basically the economist said that if your country (like mine) is not doing this, then it is doing something illegal. Here is rule one.

- Surveillance of an individual is approved by an independent Judge or Judges.

The reason for this is because politicians have been making laws that bypass the rules where Judges have the final say if there is enough evidence to violate someone's privacy rights.  In fact, Politicians have given law enforcement unrestricted powers to spy and arrest people despite the United States Constitution dictating that only a Judge can issue a warrant and only when evidence is great enough to demand an arrest or a violation of privacy is permitted. 

Now for rule two.

-Security/spy agencies must be held accountable by requiring a supervisory bias.  As such, agencies must make as much of what they, as security and spy agencies, do as public as possible.

This is reasonable as if we as a people (let alone the politicians) cannot see what they are doing (whether it is good or bad), then how can we know our rights are being violated, or that our security agencies are going one step too far.  While I understand that there is a risk that the public will not understand the methods used, this can be thankfully solved with public education campaigns to help the public know why certain methods are followed, and when they are to be applied.  In fact, as most of the public is patriotic, they may even try to help by making suggestions to improve upon these methods.

Rule three.

-Is the power used proportionate and necessary?

This means that both rules one and two have to have a certain level of power applied without going over.  So we cannot have Judges becoming overzealous, or in contrast massive amounts of resources going toward spying on an individual from say the TEA party if they pose no threat to the public at large.  As such, balance must be had at all times.

Conclusion:  This is the smell test.  It may not be perfect as it leaves wiggle room, but it is more than adequate to be a start in my opinion to fixing the errors we have made in trying to protect ourselves from harm.