Several weeks ago whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked secret documents about the NSA surveillance program PRISM.

This program enables and allows the US government to access anyones personal data from companies such as Google and Facebook.

It basically allows the National Security Agency to tap directly into the servers of the nine mentioned companies to extract audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs of foreign users.

While the US Government provides many valid reasons to justify surveillance of this type, do they respect the wishes of other countries to have their own such programs.

For instance, should we respect China spying on American and Australia citizens?

Or, should there be a different standards and rules for other countries?

Lets look at the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia. The federal government rejected a bid by Huawei to take part in the rollout of the National Broadband Network due to their links with this type of surveillance practice.

However when asked about the NSA surveillance program PRISM, Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr appears to display no concern about it. “She’ll be right mate“, thumbs up, was the message he told to the people of Australia, and in my view he might as well be endorsing it.

History shows us that we haven’t always have had governments respecting the constitution, law and the rights of the people. With this kind of practice in the hands of the wrong government, our chances of restoring a democratic society have become very slim.

I have listened to many views on this topic and it is clear that many people are afraid of their Governments.  Who they are in bed with, and who their enemies are. However, I feel it is the Governments who should be afraid of their people, especially in China where revolution is still fresh in the memory of their people.

Your views?