Final Paper
Edward Snowden was an American computer specialist that worked for the CIA and as a contractor for the NSA. He disclosed classified files over several media sources, that were evidence that the NSA was collecting data from the phone calls and internet activities of most Americans. Snowden thought that by revealing these secret government activities that Americans would realized that their privacy is being invaded and that they need to do something about it.
President Obama insisted that the government is not invading privacy but is just looking for potential terrorist activities that can be thwarted by preemptive measures. Even after this statement by the President there are those who speculate that the government is "snooping" into their lives and monitoring their internet activity. Although there is this paranoia that the government is "watching", it may actually make people more aware of what they do on their computers and cause them to practice safer internet browsing techniques.
The legal justification for the collecting of this data is Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which authorizes the government to collect domestic phone records. Section 215 expanded the extent of what could be collected and lowered the standards required to do so. The information that can be collected specifically from phone companies is the number of and length of calls made, but not what the contents of the calls is. There was also an amendment to this section that required law enforcement to have "reasonable suspicion" of terrorist activities before requesting data.
The Attorney General gives authorization for investigation in three levels, "assessment, preliminary investigation, and full investigation. For a preliminary inv...
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...t time such searches have been confirmed. The confirmation of these NSA searches on Americans’ communications also increased the difficulty of President Barack Obama’s initial defense of the wide surveillance that occurred in 2013.
It was reassured from the Department of Justice that any searches made under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, data will be used in compliance with guidelines and procedures, and it does not provide a way to get around the requirement of a court order before targeting any U.S. citizen under the FISA. A considerable amount of the NSA's bulk data collection is actually substantiated under section 702. This gives permission for the collection of communications without an individual warrant for each case, as long as there is a reasonable belief that the communications are both foreign and in another nation.
Edward Snowden, former CIA employee and contractor for the NSA, revealed last year the secret NSA surveillance programs that were used to monitor the United States and foreign countries for terrorists. In May 2013, he met with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and disclosed countless NSA files, that were then published. The files contained information on several secret surveillance programs, as well as other not yet published files. Snowden has fled to other countries for asylum, since the United States government has charged him with espionage and theft of government property. A charge that was expected, as he he predicted that they would "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how ma...
Edward Snowden is America’s most recent controversial figure. People can’t decide if he is their hero or traitor. Nevertheless, his leaks on the U.S. government surveillance program, PRISM, demand an explanation. Many American citizens have been enraged by the thought of the government tracing their telecommunication systems. According to factbrowser.com 54% of internet users would rather have more online privacy, even at the risk of security (Facts Tagged with Privacy). They say it is an infringement on their privacy rights of the constitution. However, some of them don’t mind; they believe it will help thwart the acts of terrorists. Both sides make a good point, but the inevitable future is one where the government is adapting as technology is changing. In order for us to continue living in the new digital decade, we must accept the government’s ability to surveil us.
Whether the U.S. government should strongly keep monitoring U.S. citizens or not still is a long and fierce dispute. Recently, the debate became more brutal when technology, an indispensable tool for modern live, has been used by the law enforcement and national security officials to spy into American people’s domestic.
Police being able to search your phone without is warrant is a violation of privacy and the fourth amendment. This is an ongoing issue that is currently in the Supreme Court and state courts, which have split opinions on the issue. The courts are having a lot of trouble grasping what to compare a cell phone to as far as searching it. A big case that they are comparing searching cell phones to is over 40 years old and it involves a police officer searching through a cigarette box and finding drugs. A judge in the 9th circuit against warrantless search debunked the cigarette box comparison by saying phones are more like a suitcase, except the suitcase contains everything that you have ever traveled with in your entire life, then some. Though that is a better view on the situation, it is still a very narrow view on what personal data really is. Who cares if the police can search your phone? Well when they do, they will learn more about you then you ever knew about yourself. Do you really want a stranger knowing everything about your personal life, it would almost be like living in a glass house with no doors and bright lights on all night (KOPAN, 2013).
"The Government Is Spying On Us Through Our Computers, Phones, Cars, Buses, Streetlights, At Airports And On The Street, Via Mobile Scanners And Drones, Through Our Smart Meters, And In Many Other Ways." Washington. 23 Sept 2013: n. page. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. .
Edward Snowden is an American computer specialist, former CIA and NSA employee who leaked classified documents of global surveillance devices to the media. He was born in North Carolina where his mother worked in the federal court and his father as a coast guard officer. Snowden dropped out of school around the age of fifteen and throughout the five years leading up to his twenties remained mainly unemployed and attended few community colleges. At one point in these five years Snowden decided to become part of the army and worked at the U.S. military base in Japan. He was enlisted for four months and was then discharged. His noble values were present even then, as he was eager to fight in the Iraq war claiming that he wanted to stop people being oppressed (Ackerman, S., 2013).
Aforementioned, is a snippet of Edward Snowden’s disclosure of mass surveillance program carried by NSA. Hence, who is Edward Snowden? Whence did he get the information of the government mass surveillance program? Edward Snowden is the answerable individual for one of the most significant leaks in the political history of the United States (US). He is a 29 years old former technical assistant for the Central of Intelligence Agency (CIA) and ...
“There are about 3 billion phone calls made within the USA every day” (Romano). Now picture you’re calling your friend on the phone. Sometimes we can take small privilege like this for granted. Now imagine that the government is listening to every single phone conversation that we make. Why wouldn’t this scare you? I know it terrifies me. Wiretaps are a problem that concerns every single person in the country. But it isn’t just wiretaps; with a program called Prism the NSA has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple, and other US internet giants (Glenn). Everything we search for on Google, every message sent or received on Facebook, every item purchased on Apple is all seen by the NSA. The government is overusing their power to spy on its citizens and it needs to stop.
Probably the most well known of these whistle blowers is Edward Snowden, who worked as a computer analyst for the CIA and as a subcontractor to the NSA. Interestingly enough, Snowden’s revelations about the government’s mass surveillance of US citizens are not new news. As early as 2001 an NSA high-ranking official named William Binney revealed that the agency had developed very expensive Internet surveillance programs including “Trail Blazer” and “Thin Thread.” Binney claimed that the NSA stepped up its surveillance of US citizens following the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Binney, considered “one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in National Security Agency” resigned from the NSA in late 2001 because he “could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution.” Binney c...
The initial document released by Edward Snowden was an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ordering Verizon to supply all of the metadata from their customers to the U.S. government on an ongoing basis. (Greenwald, 2013) At first glance this doesn’t appear to be too alarming. Metadata is strictly statistical data that identifies locations and length of calls, but doesn’t reveal the identity of the callers, or the content of the call itself. However, later documents released by Snowden reveal that this metadata was cross-referenced with other databases, which enabled the government to identify both callers. Furthermore, the government created software that analyzed the metadata to identify and track data patterns. (Roberts & Ackerman, 2013) Additional documents released by Snowden indicate that, through the creation of the Prism program, the government was able to conduct unlimited surveillance on Internet traffic through servers with Google, Facebook, Apple and others. Not only was the U.S. government using this data, but they were sharing it with allied countries. (Hopkins, 2013) Subsequent Snowden releases exposed that the U.S. was also spying on these allied countries. This is really alarming.
In 2013, Snowden released classified documents, many of which said, the government spies on millions of phone calls, emails, and texts. Many see Snowden as an American hero for his acts of doing this, while others, including the government, see Snowden, charged with two accounts of espionage before fleeing to Russia, as a traitor. However, in the same year Snowden released these documents exploiting the NSA, Keith B. Alexander a four star general of the United States Army and worker for the NSA argued the necessity of the government spying on its people. Alexander stated surveillance has prevented “potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11”, many of which were homeland security threats. In the House Intelligence Committee hearing Alexander also reasoned, saying, “As Americans we value our privacy and civil liberties. As Americans, we also value our security and our safety.” Although many people compromise their complete privacy to the government it is simply for the protection and safety of American
The foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a United States federal law that outlines and defines the procedures for the surveillance and collection of physical and electronic intelligence in the United States of America. As with any search and seizure operation the surveying agency must obtain a warrant by a court judge to proceed with the spying; FISA went ahead and established its own court by which it obtains its warrants for surveillance. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was created under FISA for the oversight of all surveillance warrants by federal police agencies. This court is served by a body of eleven judges placed there by the chief...
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
The government gives each American citizen a set of unalienable rights that protect them from the government’s power. These rights cannot be broken, yet the government violates the Fourth Amendment daily to find ways to spy on the American public under the guise of protecting against terrorism. In 2007 President Obama said the American administration “acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our securities – it is not.” Americans need to understand that their privacy is worth the fight. The people need to tell their neighbors, their congressmen, and their senators that they will not allow their internet privacy to be violated by needless spying. American citizens deserve the rights given to them and need to fight for the right to keep them by changing privacy laws to include Internet privacy.
"National Security -- Telephony Metadata Collection -- White Paper Argues Metadata Collection Is Legal Under The USA Patriot Act." Harvard Law Review 127.6 (2014): 1871-1878. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2014.