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government surveillance and privacy issues
government surveillance and privacy issues
individual privacy versus national security
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Background
The National Security Agency was established in 1952 from the National Security Council for the purposes of intercepting foreign radio communications (Howe, p 11). Since, the NSA has been one of the most secretive institutions within the intelligence community. However, recent events have focused on the NSA’s domestic surveillance, encouraging a debate between security and privacy.
In 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted for the purposes of outlining protocol for collection of foreign intelligence using electronic surveillance of communications or persons (Brazen, p 2). In 2007, the Act was amended to include the Protect America Act, stating that the National Security Agency had the right to monitor electronic communications between people on U.S. soil, if believed to be a threat, without court supervision (Nakashima and Warrick). The Protect America Act expired after 2007, and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was signed into law. This amendment included immunity to telecommunications providers for complying with orders to provide information to the NSA (Lichtblau). The program PRISM, was then adopted by the NSA. This program collects and stores internet communications that are provided by telecommunications companies under the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Gellman and Poitras). This information is stored as metadata, or specific details about a communication, such as the location, time, or date, a phone call or e-mail was sent (A Guardian Guide to Metadata).
In May of 2013 Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong to meet with journalists to disclose what he, and the NSA, had been doing. Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA, had been working with the NSA, and various other companies i...
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...g key intelligence. The most viable option for reform is the USA Freedom Act.
The recommendation of this research is to vote in favor of the USA Freedom Act. As a representative, voting in favor of this bill serves the public interest and the interests of your constituents. One of the abuses of the Patriot Act occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the owner of two clubs in Las Vegas, was prosecuted unfairly under statutes of the Patriot Act (ACLU). The constituents of Nevada deserve privacy and security, and voting in favor of the USA Freedom Act will ensure that.
American’s right privacy continues to need protection, and intelligence continues to need to be collected to protect America’s security. The USA Freedom Act finds a balance between these two fundamental needs. Voting in favor of this Act is a step to protect America’s interests, both at home, and abroad.
In the past few years the National Security Agency has been all over the news, and not in a good way. Former contractor of the National Security Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to several media outlets on such a scale the world took notice. The day the world learned about the Prism program among others was June, 5, 2013 when Ed Snowden gave the specifics of the programs to The Guardian, and the Washington Post. Ed Snowden turned those secrets over as a member of the NSA but fled the country before the leaks so he would not be imprisoned by the authorities. Immediately after the leaks Ed Snowden became infamous with around the clock watch as to what country would grant his asylum, he currently resides in a Moscow airport pending appeal (Staff, 2013). He claimed he “did not want to live in a society like this” that’s why he decided to turn over states secret for all the world to see (Staff, 2013). Now that you know the man behind the leaks it is time that you find out about the program, and the reach and impact it really had.
To better understand the topic at hand it is important to understand what electronic surveillance is pertaining to Foreign Intelligence. The definition of “electronic surveillance”, as written is FISA, can be summarized best as acquisition of data from wire or radio communications using “an electronic, mechanical, or other surveillance device”. There are four specific criteria that further define electronic surveillance in more detail also included in FISA under Title 1, Section 101. This section also included definitions for those groups that surveillance may be authorized against. [2]
The people’s apprehensiveness does not come from the government’s ability to monitor their phone calls. It is the idea that they are listening to their individual conversations. The government needs to communicate to its citizens on the capabilities of the program. Most of the information on the limits of PRISM has come from the data leaks of Edward Snowden. The common consensus is that the government is able to access information by merely advising a meeting with a judge that is not withheld to the public. However, contrary to the popular belief that they are listening to phone calls, they are merely collecting the date and length of each phone call (Stray).
According to John W. Whitehead, “The fact that the government can now, at any time, access entire phone conversations, e-mail exchanges, and other communications from months or years past should frighten every American.” (Whitehead). The NSA
Since the terrorist attacks at Sept. 11, 2001, the surveillance issue often has turned away the table in the debate of individual privacy or counterterrorism. By passing the Patriot Act, Congress gave President Bush an immense law enforcement authority to boost U.S's counterterrorism, and the President used his enlarged powers to forward specific programs in order to reduce the threat of terrorism and defend the country’s safety.
On 6th of June 2013, breaking news appeared on ‘The Guardian’ newspaper where in the report; it revealed that the National Surveillance Agency (NSA) of the United States was collecting telephone record under top-secret court order. The next day, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘Washington Post’ reported that NSA has been assessing information and data in the system of Internet giants such as Facebook and Google under a surveillance program. Edward Snowden, on 9th of June 2013 was named to be the one who leaked the information to the newspaper when he made a debut interview from Hong Kong.
It's the stuff that spy novels are made of and calls to mind popular authors such as Ian Flemming, John LeCarre’, and Tom Clancy. Recent news articles about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance data-mining programs targeting US citizens are so far-fetched they read like good espionage thrillers. Unfortunately, these recent reports seem to be true based upon information from several whistleblowers including William Binney, Russell Tice and Edward Snowden. These brave individuals, who stepped forward risking their reputations, careers and personal safety, revealed that the NSA has engaged in wiretapping, monitoring, and recording phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media of US citizens. The United States government has been abridging citizens' rights to privacy and violating the fourth amendment of the constitution through these types of covert operations.
The events of 9/11 rattled America and demonstrated the need for a revision in the workings of the United States Intelligence Community. Many Americans, particularly those with left-wing political beliefs, view the new laws and resolutions in national security to be a fitting response considering 2,605 citizens died and 6,294 were hospitalized for related injuries. To prevent a tragedy so deadly from repeating, the NSA needs to advance its approach to the twenty-first century accordingly. Since terrorists communicate largely via cell-phones and the internet, the NSA having access to our phone records is only logical. By law, the NSA can only examine the numbers dialed and the length of the call, needing a warrant from a judge to eavesdrop on
Electronic surveillance. Electronic surveillance has since grown to be an extraordinary part in exercising global power. In October 2001, not content with the over invasive checks and phenomenal powers of the recently passed PATRIOT Act, President Bush commanded the National Security Agency to begin under the radar monitoring of communications thought to be private by using the nation’s telephone companies without required FISA warrants. After a little while, the NSA commenced searching the Internet for emails, financial records, and voice messaging on the dubious theory that such “metadata” was “not constitutionally protected.” Because of this, by riffling the Internet for text and the parallel Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for audio, the NSA, at this time, had acquired ways to listen in on much of the world’s telecommunications. Toward the end of Bush’s term in 2008, Congress had created laws that not only subsequently legalized the illegal programs, but as well showed a way for NSA surveillance to grow unchecked
Today, surveillance is heavily present in the U.S., and as a result citizens continue to face a threat of their privacy being invaded. Since 9/11, the National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of
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...
The attacks on American soil that solemn day of September 11, 2001, ignited a quarrel that the grade of singular privacy, need not be given away in the hunt of grander security. The security measures in place were planned to protect our democracy and its liberties yet, they are merely eroding the very existence with the start of a socialistic paradigm. Benjamin Franklin (1759), warned more than two centuries ago: “they that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Implementing security measures comes at a cost both economically and socially. Government bureaucrats can and will utilize information for personal political objectives. The Supreme Court is the final arbitrator of what the ‘law is”, causing a lack of circulated rule. The actual leaders with political purposes jeopardize our individual privacy rights, liberties, and freedoms.
...e administration plans to introduce legislation that would alter the N.S.A’s privacy breaches and end its illegal data collections. Citing an identical argument, that the government cannot indicate terrorist attacks that have been stopped by the intelligence gathering programs, a review group of the Administration “called for major changes to the program; the latter also concluded that the bulk collection is illegal.”3
In the 21th century our lives are circled around technology, most noticeable our computers and smart phones. They encompass our business plans, private text messages, a hint in our political affiliation and the identity of our peers and family. In the June 2013 Edward Snowden, a former system administrator for the CIA leaked classified documents about NASA surveillance programs domestically and internationally. The sparked a fire of debate again between the balance of nation security over an individual’s private data. Snowden released information about the NSA’s PRISM program and collection of metadata. Under section 702 of the FISA (foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978), it allows NSA to use information about non-domestic communications
The recent leaks, disclosures, and actions of government agencies – namely the National Security Administration (NSA) – have caught the public’s attention and focused it on the protection of privacy and civil liberties. The NSA participates in a bulk data collection program that has accumulated phone data over the past five years in order to track persons suspected of threat to the nation. This collection of mass data without issued warrants violates the Fourth Amendment and brings the potential abuses with this program into view. Not to mention possible cyber security threats: if a subcontractor was able to commandeer this information and leak it, what is stopping hackers from doing the same, or worse.