Does State Spying Make Us Safer?: The Munk Debate on Mass Surveillance (The Munk Debates)

Does authorities surveillance make us safer? The thirteenth Munk Debate, held in Toronto on Friday, Might 2, 2014, pitted Michael Hayden and Alan Dershowitz in opposition to Glenn Greenwald and Alexis Ohanian to debate whether or not state surveillance is a reliable protection of our freedom. In a risk-filled world, democracies are more and more turning to large-scale state surveillance, at residence and overseas, to struggle advanced and unconventional threats — however is it justified? For some, the threats justify the present surveillance system, and the legal guidelines and establishments of democracies are able to balancing the wants of particular person privateness with collective safety. However for others, we’re in peril of sacrificing to an unlimited and unaccountable state surveillance equipment the civil liberties that assure residents’ fundamental freedoms and our democratic lifestyle.

On this version of the Munk Debates, former head of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden and civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz sq. off in opposition to journalist Glenn Greenwald and reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to debate the legitimacy of state surveillance. With problems with Web privateness gaining prominence, the Munk Debate on the Surveillance State asks: Ought to authorities have the ability to monitor our actions to maintain us secure?