Edward Snowden Research Paper

Whether it is calling someone on your phone or online shopping on the computer, people are more connected than ever to the internet. However, a person might be oblivious to the fact that they are being watched using these technologies. The NSA (National Security Agency) is an intelligence organization for the U.S. to protect information systems and foreign intelligence information. Recently the NSA has been accused of invading personal privacy through web encryption, tracking, and using personal information for their own uses and without permission. The surveillance of the NSA produces unlawful invasion of privacy causing an unsecure nation.

The NSA, or National Security Agency, is an American government intelligence agency responsible for collecting data on other countries and sometimes on American citizens in order to protect the country from outside risks. They can collect anything from the people’s phone data to their browser history and use it against them in the court of law. Since the catastrophes of September 11 attacks, the NSA’s surveillance capabilities have grown with the benefit of George W. Bush and the Executive Branch (Haugen 153). This decision has left a country divided for fifteen years, with people who agree that the NSA should be strengthened and others who think their powers should be limited or terminated. Although strengthening NSA surveillance may help the

As if it were not enough with all of these new security acts and suppositions that the government needed to do more to keep us safe. In late December 2010, the New York Times article revealed that President Obama and also his predecessor George W. Bush, had secretly authorized and approved the National Security Agency (NSA) having access to wiretap domestic phone calls and emails without obtaining legally required warrants. Through the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) administrative institutions were permitted to wiretap on an emergency basis and apply for warrants without the necessary legal authorization, the administration thought that FISA was too monotonous and cumbersome pertaining to urgent issues of national security.

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

But unfortunately privacy today faces growing threats from a growing surveillance apparatus that is often justified in the name of national security. Numerous government agencies including the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local law enforcement

On September 11, 2001, tragedy struck in the United States; 2,977 people died in the iconic terrorist attacks (“September 11th Fast Facts”). In New York, New York, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, and another crashed into the Pentagon, which is the military command center located in Washington D.C. Along with those three planes, there was a fourth plane that was hijacked, but the passengers overthrew the terrorist, and downed the plane in Pennsylvania. These attacks resulted in racism against the Muslim community and government agencies that changed their goal to preventing another terrorist attack on the United States and its allies (Gould, Eric D., and Klor). One of these agencies is the NSA; NSA employee, Edward Snowden leaked top-secret information in 2013, regarding their spying program (Greenwald, Glenn). This caused great commotion all across the United States about people’s rights. However, the NSA is here to protect the United States and other countries from potential terrorist attacks. The NSA should be allowed to collect people’s communication records to bring home more troops and prevent terrorist attacks.

On the 21st of June in 1983, Edward Joseph Snowden was born to Lonnie and Elizabeth Snowden. His father, Lonnie, was an officer in the US coastguard so he spent his early childhood in Elizabeth City, North Carolina until his family moved to Maryland. Snowden’s education began to wither during his mid-teens when he got ill and missed about four or five months of class. He did not graduate from high school, and at age 16, started taking classes at

Edward Snowden, was a former US(NSA) contractor, now lives in Russia after fleeing the United States via Hong Kong in May, having revealed extensive internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence.

Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. technical assistant, has disclosed information concerning the National Security Agency programs and their surveillance practices. It has been revealed that the FBI and NSA are allowed to spy on hundreds of millions of innocent Americans, that the NSA can keep information on a U.S. citizen for up to five years without a warrant, and that the NSA watches and surveils other countries and global leaders clandestinely. Edward Snowden, albeit he may be considered a criminal for leaking such information, is a more a whistleblower as he unveiled information about the government and the NSA that is considered unjustifiable and illegal.

For over forty years the U.S. government’s use of electronic surveillance was highly unregulated. They would conduct surveillance on foreign powers and their agents in order to gather intelligence, all this without the use of a warrant. This was made possible

In 2006, he went to a job fair and was offered a job at the CIA. For someone to have an offer from the CIA at a job fair, that person would have to be something special. The government just didn’t know how special he was when they offered him the position. While in the CIA, Snowden was working with the global communications division. Here he was the youngest member on his team. It didn’t really matter how Snowden looked compared to others in his field, for he could do anything. He actually said he could find work anywhere since he could do anything he wanted to do on a computer.

Leaving behind his luxurious life working for the NSA, Edward Snowden has made the decision of a lifetime. He now sees himself in Russia, after exposing over 200,000 classified documents from the NSA to the public. Russia has temporarily granted him asylum, allowing him to work and travel within its borders. He has been on the run ever since those documents went out to the public, going from country to country, escaping the USs attempts to capture him. He has exiled himself from America, into Russia. His title of a respective computer specialist working for the NSA and CIA has been thrown away, and is now known as a whistleblower.

Edward Snowden has been a loyal employee to the government, until he decided it was time for American citizens to know the truth. Edward Snowden was part of a series of leaks of government intelligence files that were linked to multiple different countries, countries that include Australia, England, and the U.S. Snowden first released the leaks in May 2013, Snowden had initially released them to the British Newspaper, The Guardian. One of the larger secrets that Snowden released was an order for Verizon which forced them to turn over metadata, phone numbers, and call lengths for millions of their users to the government. Snowden also disclosed PRISM, PRISM

Edward Snowden is a hero, a patriot. Yes what he did was reckless but when you look at the history of whistleblowing you can see great examples of what not to do when trying to expose government scandal. With this in mind, Edward Snowden chose the path that would maximize the benefit for the American people. He sacrificed his whole life so that all Americans could understand and hopefully act before the government gets too strong for its people’s own good. There is no better quality that I can think of in a hero than sacrifice and putting one’s countrymen’s wellbeing over their

Edward Snowden chose to leak classified government information despite personal risk, possibility of the death penalty, and being labeled as a whistleblower. In his opinion it was his duty to share this information with his fellow citizens because the United States government was spying on the public and gathering vast detailed knowledge about every person in the nation.