Snowden Pros And Cons

In the year of 2013, the activities of the NSA was exposed to the public and what we found out was infuriating. Apparently the National Security Association has been snooping through the personal records of the public looking for warning signs of terrorist activity. Now, this might not come off as a problem at first glance however, they are doing so without our permission. Why does this matter to you? Well the NSA could be tracking you at this very moment as you read this article. Shocking right? Government surveillance is a bad program with good intentions. Since it is violating the rights of the people, proven to be flawed, and lacks explanation as to what it really is, it is a no-no.

National Security Agency (NSA) regulations and tactics’ is an invasion of privacy, an infringement on the Constitutional Amendments, and fails to keep the private or confidential data of Americans safe from hackers.

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.

Court, many people think the surveillance programs are unconstitutional. They argue that it breaks the First and Fourth Amendments set in the constitution. The reasoning is that they are not protected against unreasonable search and seizure (Donohue). Critics contend that it is also an invasion of privacy in the lives of United States citizens and has shown little about preventing terrorist attacks (Brown). There have been arguments about freedom of speech and press in this case too. Google had filed a court petition saying that the gag order barring disclosure was a violation of its freedom of speech. Google had wanted to release the number of user accounts that were associated with the PRISM program because the reports about the program were misleading (Pepitone). In one case, Judge Richard Leon ruled the collection of phone records unconstitutional. He stated, “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval.” (Mears and Perez). Even though it was ruled unconstitutional by Judge Leon, the surveillance programs are constitutional according to the U.S. Court.

On June 6, 2013, The Guardian published a story about the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Internet surveillance program, PRISM (Greenwald and MacAskill 2013). The story was based on documents leaked by one of the most successful whistle-blowers in American history, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents that Snowden has released up to this time have shown the NSA to be heavily engaged in the collection of personal Internet activity, bulk collection of telephone "metadata," and other forms of surveillance that have brought U.S. intelligence practices into question.

On June 6, 2013 the details of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance activities where given by Edward Snowden to the public; raising concerns of Americans about their privacy. Edward Snowden, a former employee of the NSA, gave the alarming details of surveillance programs in his interview on how the NSA accesses our emails, calls, internet activity, and anything else that is related to technology. In this system of surveillance the NSA can gather data from companies and tap the cables that are vital for moving around information from technological devices, they may also use their relationships with technology companies to get emails or information straight from U.S. servers. (Cawley, Kiss, Boyd, Ball) Nevertheless, the claim is

“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

After the disclosures by Edward Snowden turned a critical eye to the NSA many people questioned the legality of the acts. The NSA claimed that their work was legal and had prevented many terrorist plots. However, evidence of only four plots was ever found. Even if the acts were founded in law, they still angered large numbers of citizens. Many citizens do not care if the spying is legal, believing that it is morally wrong. Government surveillance organizations have grown to be extremely powerful and are capable of accessing large swaths of personal information; these abilities intrude into the private lives of citizens and need to be curtailed.

While the Verizon aspect of the story is correct, the details of what PRISM does is not entirely correct. PRISM accesses information from nine internet companies (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL, and Apple) (Barton). He claims that instead of outrage, critics on both ends of the political spectrum are attacking the NSA for their activities, which Thiessen claims are legal and follow the constitution. This is only partially correct, as for it would need to comply with FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and its amendments. However, under section 215 of the Patriot Act, the government does not have to prove that a target in an investigation is a foreign power (Donahue). This, combined with the fact that the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not cover foreigners from searches done abroad (Donahue), can potentially lead to this system being abused. From what the details of the Snowden leaks showed, it has already gotten to that

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.

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.

The majority of U.S citizens believe that the government spies on everyone’s and anyone’s emails and that they intercept phone calls, text messages, and social media. But, in fact, the NSA has certain rules and laws set in place in order to make sure they don’t do such a thing. The NSA also doesn’t intercept everyone’s email, phone calls, texts, and social media, they only investigate certain people that they believe may pose a threat to the peace. In an article regarding if the NSA was acting within the law, stated,”The National Security Agency's collection of telephone and other communication data has been done entirely within the law; Americans are not being spied upon. The country's various intelligence programs operate with strict oversight and accountability, and those who work in such agencies are committed to protecting the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans" (Clapper para. 1). This proves that the NSA isn’t spying on everyday Americans, but, in fact, protecting the privacy and the liberty of

While the PRISM program which stands for personal Record information system Methodology targets suspicious foreigners using sites like Google and facebook, it is only supposed to pull Americans into the surveillance web if they are linked to those targets. A public interest research group that recently petitioned the supreme court to stop NSA collection of domestic telephone call data, hope to see the programs examined and struck down by the high court, which could consider the challenge as soon as the fall. A secret court, which “operates without anyone representing the other side,” sanctions the NSA programs, says Goitein. “There’s really no appeal”.

Snowden then made a choose to copy Top-secret NSA documents while he was at work. He gathered a significant amount of documents that he found invasive and disturbing. One of the Programs was PRISM. PRISM is a clandestine surveillance program under which the United States NSA collects internet communications from at least nine major US internet companies. Since 2001 the United States government has increased its scope for such surveillance, and so this program was launched in 2007 . PRISM program, including Microsoft in 2007, Yahoo! in 2008, Google in 2009,Facebook in 2009, Paltalk in 2009, YouTube in 2010, AOL in 2011, Skype in 2011 and Apple in

The electronic surveillance data mining program operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is called PRISM. The National Security Agency’s desire to address the agency’s need to keep up with the immense growth of the social media gave birth to PRISM. The growth of government surveillance began under the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and since then has expanded under the Obama administration.