How far should a state have a right to monitor the actions of people within its borders?(gce/2007) / Eunice

A state should have the right to monitor the actions of people within its borders because this ensures national security. Though majority of a country’s people are decent, there might be some unscrupulous ones among the crowd. These people pose potential threat to the security of the nation. For example, during war times, there could be spies from other countries within a state and if the government does not monitor their actions, secrets that would make the state vulnerable to other countries would be leaked out. However, this might not be applicable to modern day warfare as a lot of countries’ secrets can be hacked through technology as well. Countries now store their data in softcopy as well so even if no one tries to get the information physically, chances are still quite high that they can break into the database and steal important documents. For example, there are a lot of trained computer professionals all over now. These people, if used correctly can bring great benefits but if a country decides to play dirty, there are at an advantage as well. Therefore, to be on the safe side and to place national security as top priority, a state should have the right to monitor the actions of people within its borders in order to reduce the occurrence of incidents which might threaten security.