Blog #11 - EOTO Review #2

EOTO #2 Peer Review

During the EOTO Presentations given today, I learned a lot about government surveillance and an alliance between five countries that was created to spy on people around the world. The Five Eyes Alliance is comprised of the US, Uk, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. These five countries decided to collaborate after the second world war. 

Through the creation of the Five Eyes Alliance, all information was made public and shared between each country's government. Every piece of information on each citizen of multiple countries was gathered and then distributed for analysis to these five allied countries. 

The Five Eyes created Echelon as a program to control and oversee its surveillance and data distribution. Echelon was a code name for the surveillance company that was not initially public knowledge. The goal of this program was to monitor individual, military, and government communications in specific countries and areas around the globe. 

Echelon was and is capable of intercepting communication via satellites, phone calls, emails, etc. The Five eyes Alliance violates both the fourth and fifth amendments in the US. This affects trust in the US Government and the protection it claims to provide. 

Edward Snowden is a prime example of a "leak" within the Government that publically described the activities and goals of Echelon and the Five Eyes. This leak helped to shed light on how the government operates and surveys its citizens and their activity online.