The National Security Agency’s collection and tracking of personal data goes against the Constitution, specifically the first amendment. The NSA is a government-run agency created to protect the American people from threat, in addition to this, the NSA is also accountable for the monitoring, collecting and the handling of foreign and counterintelligence information. In June 2013, Edward Snowden leaked classified documents belonging to the United States Government. These documents are now known as the NSA files. Since their release, these documents have provoked outrage from American and foreign citizens.The NSA was created for the safety of the American people, and has expanded into an agency with the purpose of surveying and collecting data …show more content…
Snowden is believed to have gone through the documents before giving them to MacAskill and Greenwald, Snowden here states, "I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over". The NSA files held information on confidential programs such as PRISM, Bullrun, Carnivore and ECHELON. PRISM is a surveillance program in which the government has partnered up with nine different private companies in order to have access to online data. These companies include, Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, Youtube, Skype and AOL. PRISM was started in 2007, as a product of the Protect America Act under the Bush Administration. PRISM accounts for over 90% of the NSA’s data records, by far the largest program (“NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program”). Bullrun, also a classified encryption program, focused on the access of the medical files, emails and online bank accounts of American citizens. Bullrun has been the most costly program run by the NSA, as of 2011, totaling to approximately 800 million US dollars (Neal). Carnivore was an FBI-run program that audited email and online communication. It was implemented in 1997, and replaced in 2005 by NarusInsight, a for profit software company. ECHELON is a program that’s existence was confirmed in the NSA files. ECHELON deals with intercepting satellite signals, specifically Intelsat satellites. Intelsat is a company which controls 52 commercial satellites. TRANSIENT, a program much like ECHELON, instead oversees the interception of Russian
Without a warrant, searching through a person’s intimate records is considered illegal and unconstitutional according to the U.S Fourth Amendment. However, these infractions are still being committed today, some are even being committed by the U.S government. When the government agreed upon the Patriot Act, after the law was signed, confidential agencies were formed, such as, the NSA. The NSA was assembled by the government to collect and store data secretly, this information is received from popular internet companies and phone companies. The NSA derives information from a total of nine American Internet companies, and tracks millions of Americans using data from Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth. By court order, Verizon is forced to provide
The age of internet and technology has altered our society and the way that we communicate amongst our peers. A small phone in our pocket can connect us with someone on the opposite side of the country, even the world. We have access to answers for nearly any question and the opportunity to buy almost anything, all in the palm of our hand. So in this new age of communication, the government needs some method to preserve national security. The NSA is an organization which for years has monitored personal communication of its citizens.
The NSA program on surveillance began in 2001. This is when Congress authorized government officials to listen in on the phone calls and emails of those individuals suspected of engaging in terrorist activities (via the USA Patriot Act). It is designed to ensure that the intelligence community and law enforcement have the tools they need to track / monitor those suspected
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
The National Security Agency (NSA) has been an information gathering arm of the Executive branch since the Cold War and continues to be an essential part of ensuring the security of the United States. The public issue that involves the NSA is the spying of U.S citizens which can be seen as a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This was revealed to the public by the whistleblower Edward Snowden who released classified documents of activities that the NSA had been conducting in conjuncture with telecommunication companies, which angered many U.S citizens and received media coverage with a call for the U.S Government to restrict the NSA’s activities or at least for there to be Congressional oversight. This debate revolves around how much the NSA’s surveillance activities are actually used for national security as well as the constitutionality of the NSA’s surveillance. This all began after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 when there was a call for the attacks to never happen again and the adoption of the Patriot Act in that same year which increased the power of the NSA.
The NSA surveillance program is a critically important program to the national security in the United States. The NSA has two missions, to exploit foreign communications, known as SIGINT, and protect U.S. information systems, known as IA. The headquarters are located at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, which is very close to Washington D.C. The NSA is known for its high tech prowess, and it is on the frontiers of communications and information technology.
Reading AOW # 10, explains a lot of reasons to keep your phone safe from hackers and the government. you can't trust anyone anymore. some want to do harm to others and others wants to help and do good to others, when they get too much power and can control it, then become evil. like the NSA ( National Security Agency). The NSA was a program that intercepts, decodes, and analyzes foreign communication- such as emails, telephone calls, radio, Morse code, and other “ signals intelligence”. The NSA is so big, that is stores billions of internet communication end cell phone record from the U.S. and around the world every day. NSA was created by President Truman in 1952 to code break the Soviet Union communication. no one knew about the NSA during the 10 years opening in the
The NSA, The National Security Agency that is under the government control was initially intended to protect the USA by tethering through technology devices to attempt to pick up any suspicious activities. The problem is that many feel as if the NSA has no right to evade their privacy. The NSA should be penalize every time they do so, or should have some type of warrant, but only for last resort, or stopped completely. There are many other ways to go about finding troublesome threats like antagonist programs like CDT as I mentioned earlier. Having your privacy tampered with isn’t worth it. The NSA is not needed that bad.
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.
“It was maximally secretive from the start: President Truman created the NSA with the stroke of a pen at the bottom of a classified 7-page memorandum. Even the name was initially classified. Decades later, the memorandum that acted as the agency's charter remained secret.“(Friedersdorf). Because of this, the NSA has been shrouded in secrecy, which people disapprove of. “Despite its size and power...no law has ever been enacted prohibiting the NSA from engaging in any activity... In addition to being free of legal restrictions, the NSA has technological capabilities for eavesdropping beyond imagination.”(Friedersdorf). The NSA didn't want people to know about them or the illegal things they were doing. When the snowden files were released, The NSA had a downfall. If they were doing everything that was legal, they wouldn't have to hide everything that they are doing. While the NSA tries to support the US, many people still disapprove of their private records being
This justifies the previous claims that internet protection should be included in the penumbra of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. A few years ago, a former employee of both the CIA and NSA, Edward Snowden, became a whistleblower as he leaked information pertaining to the illicit activities of the NSA. One of the NSA programs that Snowden informed the public on was called XKeyscore, which allowed members of the NSA to ""search through enormous databases of emails, online chats, and browsing histories of targets,"" (Business Insider). The government having the ability to investigate the internet content of ordinary citizens, in any fashion similar to that of XKeyscore, is unjust and denies American citizens their rights. The uproaring havoc of the public following the Snowden leaks reflects how Americans today, as a whole, feel about their internet content being watched by the government. Recently, the possibility of the FCC removing net neutrality concerned many citizens, afraid they were possibly going to lose their internet privileges. While this does not directly correlate to monitoring the internet, it goes to show that many Americans do not wish to have a reduction in their internet
On October 4 2001, President George W Bush secretly signed under his full authority, a executive order for “The Program”. After signing the order, the NSA then have full authority to monitor all internet traffic, and phone calls in the United States. After the NSA failed to prevent the 9/11, they set a new goal, which is to detect terrorist, and monitor their
The NSA is the National Security Agency. This is a government agency tasked with monitoring, collecting, and processing information from all around the globe. The NSA uses this information to keep track of the whereabouts of people of interest for the United States, and they use it to determine what action needs to be taken to protect the US. This includes spying on allies of the United States, such as Germany, France, the UK, and other nations around the world. However, they also have been proven to be spying on not only the US’s allies, but also, its own citizens.
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 National Security Agency or NSA is the government organization that is responsible for government surveillance. This government organization collects data ranging from