The Ethics Of The Nsa

The Patriot Act was hastily passed just a month later October and it severely limited the privacy of Americans and gave unprecedented power to the government and private agencies to track innocent Americans, turning regular citizens into suspects.5 In addition, the great technological evolution and emerged of social media that occurred round the same time, and shortly thereafter, created the perfect storm for the emergence of the largely unregulated surveillance society that we live in today.6 The result is digitization of people’s personal and professional lives so that every single digital trace that people leave can be identified, stored, and aggregated to constitute a composite sketch of ourselves and its only getting worse. In 2008, passed the FISA Amendments Act, which expands the government’s authority to monitor Americans’ international communications, in addition to domestic communications.7 In short, after 9/11 the U.S is left with a national surveillance state, in which “the proliferation of government technology and bureaucracies that are able to acquire vast and detailed amounts of digital information about individuals with minimal or no judicial supervision and often in complete secrecy,” giving the government and corporations with access to the data that the government compiles the ability to single

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.

Friday November 11th, I saw many articles of history claiming that government surveillance has been happening since Watergate and after the 9/11 attacks. Jane Harman implies that security sparked from the mistake of not protecting enough (Harman). The USA PATRIOT Act gave the government the authority to research forms of communication prior to 9/11 (“Domestic”). President George W. Bush authorized the National Security Agency, NSA, to look into the media and is believed to be the largest intelligence agency in the United States (“Domestic”). NSA has a location in Utah that can hold about 100 years of international data (Maney). Also, Lauren Regan claims that the new facility will be 1.5 million square feet (Regan 32). It’s shocking that they’ve made that big of a

Surveillance and Intelligence skyrocketed due to the terrorist attack. This is a controversial topic because the intelligence agencies can break the 4th amendment or the right to privacy and spy on innocent Americans. The 4th amendment was broken by the NSA and was exposed on June of 2013, leaked NSA agent Edward Snowden. The leaked documents showed how the NSA was collecting phone records of millions of Americans and collected data on who has communicated with whom over the internet (bbc.com) making what the NSA was doing unconstitutional.

Edward Snowden’s disclosures have brought to light many secret government actions that were previously unknown. One of the most controversial government programs that Snowden disclosed was how the National Security Agency (NSA) collected virtually every phone record for calls made in the United States between US citizens. It makes sense to monitor phone calls to or from callers located outside the United States, because non-US citizens don 't have the protection of the US Constitution and monitoring these calls also might be helpful in identifying foreigners who might be plotting terrorist attacks in the US. However, US citizens have 4th Amendment privacy rights under the Constitution, so it is much more of a problem when the US government collects bulk information about US citizens who do not pose an obvious danger to the country.

The First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and political association are put in jeopardy as well by dying entry to non-citizens on the basis of ideology and by the creation of "domestic terrorism." These actions have taken place to reduce or eliminate terrorist activities. "Once a Fourth Amendment protection has been eroded, the resulting loss to our privacy is likely to be permanent."*

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.

Keeping the United States of America safe from foreign threats is far from an easy task. However, preventing domestic threats is a much more complicated and delicate one. Government organizations such as the National Security Agency [NSA] are known to have invaded our privacy through our connection to technology. The NSA has publicly admitted to the surveillance. Due to media coverage, the NSA is often viewed as the main agency that bulk collects data. Emails, phone calls, and even our text messages have been surveilled under an NSA program known as “PRISM” (“Domestic Surveillance Techniques”). Everyday government organizations invade our privacy for the sake of national security in an attempt to defend us from domestic threats, but it seems they often take surveillance a step too far. United States citizens should understand legality of these actions, as well as the purpose this data collection serves.

In recent months, the NSA has been attacked by cell phone users across America. This accusation is greatly aided by the media, which makes the NSA appear much worse than it actually is. The media has made it appear that the NSA directly reads each and every text sent by Americans, and the privacy of American citizens is being infringed upon. While many texts

“I think it’s ridiculous for a citizen of a country that views his government’s duty to protect me, protect all of us from evil, from harm, from terrorists, from foreign powers meaning ill — to classify a body of government that is designed to figure out what might hit us next and prevent it, throwing them into an evil bucket is just thoughtless,” Max Levchin, PayPal’s co-founder told the press regarding the NSA spying scandal1. Pandemonium struck once a man leaked to the world that the NSA was spying on people through their electronics. The people could only imagine what kind of information had been seen by the government. However, this was being done to protect them from terroristic threats. Honestly, there is no legitimate reason to be afraid of this. The NSA should be allowed to spy on the technology and social media of American citizens.

Because the number of casualties is so high, one might argue that domestic surveillance actually does nothing to stop terrorism. However, many influential government officials have publicly mentioned that the usage of domestic surveillance has actually contributed towards the foiling of many malicious plots, both on American soil and other foreign countries (Francis) General Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA (at the time), testified to Congress, “the information gathered from these programs provided the U.S. government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world.” Our former president, Barack Obama, even confirmed this himself. “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany.

Government surveillance has not contributed to a decrease of percentage in crimes, but has created a controversial topic instead. Online surveillance has been an invasion of privacy, because everything the users access is seen without their consent. Due to the fact the stored data is not used, government surveillance in the united states has not been very impactful. Crimes and terrorist attacks were not stopped, and the mass storage of personal data within the last year has violated privacy laws 2,776 times (Government Surveillance 722). Surveillance online is not only unsuccessful in America, but in UK, and Canada as well. Out of every 1000 security cameras, only one camera is actually used to catch a criminal (Government Surveillance 722). However, there are several solutions that can be made to allow the usage of government surveillance without the violating the rights of Americans. Some of the solutions have already taken action, and will give users more freedom online.

Place yourself in the safety and comfort of your home, under the belief that “everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of his property” (Department of International Law), searching, emailing, and talking about things that may be frowned upon by others. Now imagine the raw feelings of fear and deception that would wash over you upon seeing Edward Snowden’s statement on how “the U.S. government is destroying privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building.” You may initially feel betrayed, but Obama formally announced that the NSA acts solely in the name of safety right? Have we begun to sacrifice the freedom and

The Government Spying a Positive or Negative Thing for America? Protection might be the first thought for some people, but others it’s a thought of fear or is even just disturbing. Just think about it, someone watching each move, or are they? What are they looking for and how come it’s just now becoming known? Some people love the fact that they have someone with more powerful watching over them. People believe that the government will do their best to do so; however, others think, they are taking the spying way too far and that the government should just completely stop, some think they should just reduce the spying, and only use it for terrorism purposes. After many years of technology upgrades and terrorist attacks, the government has acted to protect, but the effect has changed the lifestyle of many in so many ways. People might say “terrorist Attacks still happen, so must not work”; however, Terrorist attacks are a major problem and need to be addressed. After 9/11 it was time to step up the security from older times, because the safety of the American people is above privacy, and should not be a problem unless you are doing something wrong, Government spying is a must for the safety of Americans.