NSA Surveillance Cons

The NSA has been proven to be spying on United States citizens without proof of those citizens being labeled as a threat to the United States or anyone. Just like in the book 1984 by George Orwell, the government was spying on their citizens for no reason. There are many similarities between the book 1984 and the NSA. Many individuals either succeeded or tried to show the terrible things that their government was doing. The NSA has been known in the past to protect the United States but since Edward Snowden exposed the NSA the United States citizens put less trust in their government in fear their rights will be taken away.

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

NSA infringes on the 1st and 4th Amendment rights. America was the safe zone: a lot of people came to the United States so that they would have the freedom to express who they are, what they believe, and their thoughts without punishment. Edward Snowden, NSA whistle blower, wasn’t allowed that freedom when he made it know what the NSA was doing with Verizon’s phone records. Snowden did break the law but he brought awareness of this dilemma to the average citizen, villain, and hero. In the end, it caused the NSA to change some policies but it doesn’t even make a difference because still the administration continues to collect data without a cause. Correction: the NSA uses surveillance to protect United States of America from terrorist, terrorism and terrorism related crimes… The agency’s interpretation: anyone and anything under the sun.

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.

“After years of denial, much of which likely constituted perjury, officials of the National Security Agency (NSA) admitted to having conducted unwarranted surveillance of Americans, a violation of the protections against such searches provided by the Fourth Amendment.” "NSA Admits Directly Targeting Americans for Warrantless Surveillance." NSA Admits Directly Targeting Americans for Warrantless Surveillance. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. The NSA abuses their power by going to the extreme and spying on innocent citizens warrantless. It isn’t fair to the society. The NSA shouldn’t be able to view anyone’s personal information without a warrant. With or without a warrant, The NSA should still have certain rules that will create boundaries. President Obama and the National Security Chief stated that they do not monitor the communications of

It has been more than seventy years since the release of George Orwell’s 1984, a novel that imparts a lesson on the consequences of government overreach. However, today that novel reads like an exposé of government surveillance. Privacy and national security are two ideas competing for value on a balance; if one is more highly valued, the other carries less weight. Government desire to bolster national security by spying on its own citizens-- even the law abiding ones-- is what leads to the inverse relationship between civil liberties and security. In times of a perceived threat to the nation, national security becomes highly prized and people lose privacy. One case is terrorist attacks. 9/11 caused an understandable kneejerk reaction in Americans to bolster protection. Some of the the measures taken were observable, like greater security at airports, but others attempted to increase national security in a more intrusive way. Privacy should be more highly valued than national security, and America has reached a point where that is no longer true.

Many people feel that the Patriot Act overreaches its original intent by allowing the government to spy on its own citizens, essentially violating American’s civil liberties, most notably our right to privacy granted by our Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, as well as our right to due process granted by the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

This paper will outline portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, how said portions are unconstitutional and how they have been largely ineffective. The paper will also discuss how the federal government needs to adopt a more transparent system for how federal agencies collect intelligence. Citizens of the United States should not be treated like terrorist suspects without probable cause. The federal government should only legally target those persons who are suspected of terrorism and not spy on every U.S. citizen who uses phones and email to communicate.

“The way we’ve explained it to the American people,” he said, “has gotten them so riled up that nobody told them the facts about the program and the controls that go around it.” (Sanger, NY Times) General Alexander explained that the NSA does not research where it isn’t necessary. He said that the NSA only keeps surveillance where it thinks is necessary to defend against attacks and/or security breaches. The Domestic Surveillance Directorate branch of the NSA states that their mission is to collect, process, and store U.S. citizen data for the good of the Nation. The DS is trying to protect U.S. citizens’ information from aliens and terrorists. Their motto is “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” which implies that the DS is only collecting information that is beneficial to the security of the Nation and it’s citizens. To further protect the citizens of the United States, the government has funded the building of the $1.5 Billion dollar Utah Data Center. This is the center for a majority of the NSA tracking data. During an interview with the national security expert, Buck Sexton, Sexton stated that “NSA derived data has officially been used in a criminal prosecution” (The Blaze). Sexton believes that the NSA, as bad as it may seem in the eyes of the public, has helped prosecute criminals and ward of acts of terrorism in the nation.

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known as the USA PATRIOT Act, or simply the PATRIOT Act was introduced on October 24, 2001, only 45 days after the devastating terrorists attacks of 9/11. It passed nearly unanimously, with only one person total in both the House or Representatives and the Senate voting against it. This law has many aspects, but perhaps the most controversial is the authorization of surveillance procedures, and the legitimacy of these provisions in regards to the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The following is an examination of the moral and homeland security implications this Act has on the American people and the

Most people do not want a 9/11 repeat and will say, the NSA should be allowed to monitor everything we do on the internet to protect our families and loved ones. The NSA is here to protect us and doesn’t care about the stupid videos you watch for laughter, they don’t care about the pictures you took when you were on vacation. The “spying” the NSA does keeps track of phone calls, emails, messages, purchases and your location. The people opposing monitoring our internet behavior say, monitoring everything we do and saving our data, is breaking the Fourth Amendment right which is,

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

“The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival” (Orwell). The world today is full of many dangers domestic and abroad. It has become a routine in the news to report on the daily mass shooting or update with the war on terror. We live in a world where being worried is justified; however, we should not give up our constitutional rights in the face of fear. The NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs, such as PRISM, are both ineffective and are surpassed by less questionable national security programs. The FISA court's’ approval of NSA actions are not only illegal, but exist as an embarrassing formality. Surveillance is a necessary

To begin, government spying creates potential risks to public trust, personal privacy, and civil liberty, which is why dometic programs that allows bulk data to be stored should be put to an end. With the Patriot coming to an end, the senate voted to end NSA’s bulk data collection programs to end on may 13. “[T]he House overwhelmingly passed the USA Freedom Act by a vote of 338-88 . The bill would take the storage of bulk telephony metadata away from the government and would instead rely on the telecom

Technology has become very effective for a thriving generation, but it also possesses a handful of flaws that counter the benefits. Technologies help people post and deliver a message in a matter of seconds in order to get a message spread quickly. It also gives individuals the power to be the person they want to be by only showing one side of themselves. But sometimes information that had intentions of remaining protected gets out. That information is now open for all human eyes to see. This information, quite frankly, becomes everybody’s information and can be bought and sold without the individual being aware of it at all. However, this is no accident. Americans in the post 9/11 era have grown accustomed to being monitored. Government entities such as the NSA and laws such as the Patriot Act have received power to do so in order to protect security of Americans. However, the founding fathers wrote the fourth amendment to protect against violations of individual’s privacy without reason. In a rapidly growing technological world, civil liberties are increasingly being violated by privacy wiretapping from government entities such as the NSA, Patriot Act and the reduction of the Fourth Amendment.