National Security Agency Analysis

The National Security Agency, better known as the NSA, has always been a vital asset for the United States. Ever since its inception in 1962 by then-President, Harry S. Truman, for the sake of deciphering messages sent between Germany and Japan, the role of the NSA has been to gather information on the United State's adversaries as well as protect information of its citizens such as credit information from theft. However, the NSA also has a third role which makes it a pivotal asset during wartime: carrying the tasks of the operation code-named Network Warfare. Over the past six decades, the NSA has created a reputable reputation for itself from deciphering messages during World War II to finding acts of terrorism beforehand via the Internet.

Putting it bluntly, metadata is data about data. As there are two forms of metadata, structural and descriptive metadata, this section will be focusing primarily on descriptive metadata. While the types of metadata has been narrowed down, metadata can still be considered another entity as it contains data of data, so it is possible to give it another name. It is also worth noting that metadata can give information it contains tags in which the information much more detailed (Ashbrook, 2010). Metadata is usually created manually by a person for programming in order to facilitate a specific task such as listing directories for items of interest but metadata can be created by a computer should the computer require more directories for larger bulks of information. While metadata was originally restricted to computers, metadata can now be found in smartphones as smartphones have the capabilities of a computer but at a lower capacity. With the latter said, how does this contribute to the metadata collection? There are two ways this question can be answered and it depends on the electronic being

Metadata, depending on the person utilizing the information contained in the data, can be the angel's prophet or the devil's advocate. Looking at the above paragraph, the use of metadata has come under fire for its recent use that has been hurting a right held by Americans: the Fourth Amendment. As stated earlier, metadata is detailed data about data. The data can reveal almost anything about the information contained within the data. So how does this violate the Fourth Amendment? Well, the amendment defines the notion of protection from unreasonable searches and seizures of property by the government. Now, fast forward to modern-day America where technology has advanced heavily. As unreasonable searches and seizures can now happen without a person knowing as evident by the NSA, the Fourth Amendment has been modified a bit to accommodate technology. Now, the amendment gives protection against the search and seizing from electronic devices. By taking information from both computers and cell phones alike without any form of warranty or court order, the NSA has violated the Fourth Amendment. This has caused so much controversy that the Supreme Court eventually took on the issue. Followed up by TIME magazine, writer Denver Nicks discusses the issue and its impact on society as a whole. Many Americans across the country are in protest against the