(The latest version of this page is at Pattern Descriptions. An archived copy of this page is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition02/728.htm)
Intelligence-gathering has always been a major aspect of Self-Protection. It can involve obtaining military or commercial secrets, or it can be a means of uncovering activities which constitute threats – either internal or external. Governments can use such intelligence to avert some incidents and respond to others more effectively.
People place a high value on their security so they might willingly accept some of their own government’s intelligence-gathering activities, though they might not accept what they regard as the invasion of the privacy of private citizens if there are no specific reasons for suspecting them. If a local terrorist threat is uncovered early enough, it should be possible to use the law to imprison troublemakers and prevent the threat from growing.
A target country has no recourse in law against foreign spying, unless a spy is captured. And some spying is now done remotely, either using the Internet or drones. The extent of such activities has become a subject of popular debate recently, following Edward Snowden's revelations.[1]
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014
[1] On 17 January 2014, the BBC published an article entitled Edward Snowden: Leaks that exposed US spy programme. This article, which also revealed the extent of British involvement in spying, was available in May 2014 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23123964.