Argumentative Essay: The Invasion Of Privacy

Over the past few years, government surveillance in the United States has become a widely debated issue with two completely different sides. The National Security Agency, a government agency known for it’s efforts in spying and surveillance, has been at the center of this issue since it’s founding in the 1950’s. The Cold War had just begun and the United States government was doing anything they could to find potential terrorists and communists. In fact, many famous people including Einstein were being spied on by the government to find citizens with potential ties to the Soviet Union. (New York Times - New Details Emerge from the Einstein Files; How the FBI Tracked His Phone Calls and His Trash) As the cold war came to an end in the early 90’s, NSA spying seemed to come to an end as well.

Under George W. Bush’s term, and shortly after the attacks of September 11th 2001, both the President’s Surveillance Program and the Terrorist Surveillance Program have been brought under scrutiny. Each of the programs authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) by executive order to monitor phone calls,

The quest for privacy and security has always been a long and arduous one, as America’s citizens “no longer care” about the lack of integrity which the American government is showing towards its citizens (Sullivan). “When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.” Sullivan explains in Privacy under attack, but does anybody care?. After the National Security Agency was accused of “systematically collecting information” on citizens’ phone calls, emails, and countless other sources, “the news media treated it as a complete revelation” (Whitehead). People throughout the country protested and condemned the government—all while they failed to realize that we have consciously permitted the government to collect and secure our private information by “giving our personal information” to companies who ask for it, and by “allowing our personal lives to be posted on media sources such as Facebook and Twitter” (Washington). Ironically enough, we ourselves have

Lately, in the United States, the controversial topic of privacy has been rekindled by several occurrences, including the recent NSA surveillance scandal. When government actions are questioned, the

Dingwen Zhang English 3 12 August 2016 NSA Surveillance NSA Surveillance: Is safety worth losing freedom? Recently there is debate about if it is okay for the United States government to spy on citizens using NSA and FBI. This became common knowledge when Edward Snowden leaked millions of documents that show the government is spying on the public. The United States government should not keep the NSA surveillance going because it hurts the public more than it keeps the public safe.

Another Important milestone in the new privacy paradigm was the revelation of the NSA’s surveillance program, PRISM. On June 5th, 2013, Edward Snowden leaked documents that revealed the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. The documents revealed that the NSA was tracking information from nine major Internet companies, including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple. PRISM could collect about 600 million communications a day and store them for up to 30 days. Through the use of various methods, the NSA was able to intercept communications in real time (“Edward Snowden Leaks” 2014). With the implementation of PRISM, the United States government was able to covertly monitor information. The program was used to collect information from the Internet, but it was also used to obtain information from allies. One of the major issues with this program was the ability to monitor citizens without them ever becoming aware of the intrusion. PRISM was a drastic shift from the policies implemented in the eighties. Certain companies were cooperating with the NSA, many willingly handed over records. While these programs were implemented over a decade ago they have shaped the way the government views privacy. New policies are implemented which extend the government’s ability to gain access to information. This increase in power is problematic to the Internet user because it has restricted the rights of people. Internet privacy has been limited under the new paradigm in order

After laying low for about 20 years the NSA was called back into the spotlight. According to Heiligenstein “In 2002 the NSA started a project called ‘data mining’. This was where they were digging through electronic data Also in 2002 George Bush allowed the NSA to warrantlessly wiretap American citizens phones. In 2007 this program would come to light and be dismissed after social pressure.”(P. 21-23) In 2013, Edward Snowden who had worked for the NSA revealed countless documents and stories of the things the NSA were doing with out the American people knowledge. He revealed that the NSA had been gathering million of phone calls, texts and emails without permission. It and it also exposed that the US had been spying on it allies for

The NSA (National Security Agency) was established by order of President Truman. The decision followed the development in breaking German and Japanese codes during WWII that contributed to allied victories and successful missions. The NSA was a means of continuing code-breaking work of the post-war era (The NSA 2016). Henceforth, the agency’s focus has shifted from individual suspicion to a large systematic practice of collecting mass data. Pressure to reduce fear of attacks has led the federal government to increase surveillance to combat terrorism. In the last decade, it has become increasingly normal for civil liberties to be eroded and government agencies to spy on citizens to collect and store their personal information.

America today rivals George Orwell’s 1984 society through the National Security Agency’s global surveillance programs such as Prism, XKeyscore, and Dishfire. Surveillance programs, led by the NSA, are all used to clandestinely collect electronic data from all internet and phone users throughout the world. These programs came about after the Patriot Act of 2001. This act was put in place to help protect the American people from terrorist groups after the atrocities seen on 9/11. Originally drafted to protect the people, the Patriot Act was soon taken advantage of by the NSA. These programs should be heavily restricted because they disregard personal privacy, do not properly protect the information they are taking, and, lastly, are unconstitutional.

When hasn’t there been a time that Americans complained about their privacy? Invasion of privacy by hackers and the government is a huge problem in America because of the large amount of technology. The more that technology grows the more resources hackers and the government has to snoop in on our personal lives. There are many, and I mean many info-advertisement that advise you to secure you identity. But does it actually work?

Following the terrorist attacks on September of 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law The USA PATRIOT Act. Intended to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, The Patriot Act made changes to surveillance laws that enabled the U.S government to collect computer information about both American and foreign citizens in unprecedented ways. During the following years, through a series of legislative changes and court decisions, The United States National Security Agency was gradually granted the authority to collect information on a massive scale by implementing programs such as PRISM, which collects internet communications from at least nine major US internet companies such as Google, Facebook Yahoo and Apple ; XKEYSCORE, which gave the NSA the ability to secretly access databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals; MYSTIC, which allows them to collect the metadata as well as the content of phone calls from several entire countries, as well as many other programs with similar mass surveillance capabilities . To put it in simple terms, together this programs essentially enables almost unlimited warrantless surveillance of anyone and everyone anywhere in the world, regardless of that person nationality, affiliation or lack thereof to any criminal or terrorist group.

Since the events of September 11th, government surveillance has skyrocketed to some of the most advanced programs seen today; the government has the ability to intercept almost anybody’s internet activities, personal messages, and phone calls. 9/11 brought about the implementation of the Patriot Act, new NSA programs, and a new found “war on terrorism.” This has become a controversial issue on whether these programs violate Americans’ civil rights. Future government surveillance can be predicted to only become bigger and stronger, unless citizens seek to change the laws that allow the interception of privacy. Although the Fourth Amendment gives citizens the right to privacy, the interpretation of the law leaves the NSA to ultimately invade peoples’ privacy.

Edward Snowden is a hero for unveiling the unknown, invasive nature of government supervision over American civilians. In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked documents from the National Security Agency that revealed the agency’s invasive tactics of collecting and storing personal information owned by Americans. The surveillance was authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008 (FISA), an act intended to allow foreign threats to be investigated through their internet usage. If agencies such as the FBI or the NSA desired personal customer information from private companies, they can easily issue a “National Security Letter.” The letter would involve a gag order, or a document that demands complete disclosure surrounding a business deal. Commonweal Magazine informed Americans that an astounding “fifteen thousand such letters were issued in 2012.”(Source #2) AT&T and Verizon were among the telecommunication companies to be convinced to give the NSA copies of their customer’s internet messages. The government allowed the NSA to seize citizen’s personal information with a simple processes. Considering how easy it was to access American’s private documents, privacy advocates believe Section 702 encouraged invasive surveillance. The NSA was also capable of searching through international and American data by conducting “upstream” and “downstream

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In today’s society people live in a world where technology is so accessible to any and everyone. Terms and conditions being accepted by several people without the knowledge of what they are giving companies and the government access to. In a democracy the government and the citizens should have an equal split on the amount of privacy because privacy should be respected by both sides and should not be exploited.