Research Paper

Forum: 6th COMMITTEE (LEGAL COMMITTEE)

Issue: Mass surveillance as a means of intelligence gathering

Chair/Co-chair: Ksenia Kiselova, Anna Gundtoft

Description of Issue:

The world seriously turned its attention to the mass surveillance of entire populations

after the 2013 NSA scandal. Former contractor of the National Security Agency in

the US leaked disclosed documents which proved surveillance of global channels of

communication and intelligence gathering. This revealed that the population of

America had had their data collected, even on no grounds of suspicion. This kind of

mass surveillance is a violation of privacy and can restrict free speech, as people

might be less willing to speak their minds when they know they are being monitored.

Background information:

Mass surveillance is the monitoring of large amounts of people – sometimes whole

countries – sometimes without sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. This surveillance

includes internet browser history, internet searches, emails, instant messages,

webcam conversations, and phone calls. It also includes metadata, ‘data about data’,

which includes email recipients, call times and location records.

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United

Nations in 1948 states “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his

privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and

reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such

interference or attacks”, thereby rendering mass surveillance a direct violation of

human rights.

In 1946, an alliance of English speaking countries (United Kingdom, United States,

New Zealand, Canada, and Australia) began a series of bilateral agreements. These

agreements had the purpose of intelligence sharing between these five countries. This

secret post-war alliance called the Five Eyes has been building a global surveillance

infrastructure to ‘master the internet’ and spy on the communications of the world.

Key Terms:

Five Eyes: a secretive, global surveillance arrangement of States comprised of the

United States National Security Agency (NSA), the United Kingdom’s Government

Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Canada’s Communications Security

Establishment Canada (CSEC), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and New

Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).

NSA: The National Security Agency is a national-level intelligence agency in the

United States. The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and

processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence

purposes. The NSA is the American equivalent of the British Government

Communications Headquarters, the Australian Australian Signals Directorate, the

Government Communications Security Bureau, and the Canadian Communications

Security Establishment.

XKeyscore: a program, revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013, used by the NSA to

search and analyze global internet data.

Dishfire: a program used by the NSA to “collect more than 200 million text

messages every day”.

Useful Sources:

The Enemies of Internet, Era of the digital mercenaries: http://surveillance.rsf.org/en/

Wong, Cynthia M., Human Rights Watch, A Clear-Eyed Look at Mass Surveillance:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/25/clear-eyed-look-mass-surveillance

Amnesty International, Mass Surveillance: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Mass-

surveillance

Questions to think about:

What is your country’s position on the issue?

What are your country’s past actions for/against this issue?

Bibliography:

Beaumont, Ben, Amnesty International, last accessed on 2nd of October, available

online at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/03/easy-guide-to-mass-

surveillance/

Privacy International, last accessed on 2nd of October, available online at:

https://www.privacyinternational.org/?q=node/51

Wills, Amanda, Mashable, Another Snowden Leak, last accessed on 2nd of October,

available online at: http://mashable.com/2013/07/31/nsa-xkeyscore/#RNSvuGLvtsqw

Ball, James, The Guardian, NSA collects millions of text messages daily […], last

accessed on 2nd of Octoberr, available online at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-

messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep