The Government: Watching Everything You Do

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Recommended: Government surveillance and privacy issues

The government — they are watching everything you do. For many people, they would think that saying phrases like this would make someone look like a crazy or some kind of conspiracy theorist. Though it turns out that these statements are true in a sense that the many governments and not just the U.S. are surveilling its own citizens and other people around the world by tracking and recording their phone calls, e-mails, and other communications. The main way this came into the light is the recent and ongoing controversy with the NSA and leaks from whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. These revelations are raising doubts in people’s minds and they are wanting to make change or reform to the government(s). Through this revelation, made by the help of whistleblowers and news sources, there are questions on what caused this agency to get started, how are they operating, what do they know, what is causing so much attention to this specific current event, and what is driving people to demand change and reform.
The NSA or the National Security Agency, is “the largest intelligence agency in the US, which is responsible for collecting and analyzing communications and signals intelligence, plus cybersecurity” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1-2). Since its inception, “the very existence of the National Security Agency was not revealed more than two decades after its establishment in 1952” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1). and since “its structure and activities remain largely unknown. Hence its wry nickname: No Such Agency” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par.1). “Once President Harry Truman established the NSA, its purpose was to collect data and information across the country and internationally. The task originally gi...

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.... 10 Nov. 2013.

"Jewel v. NSA | Electronic Frontier Foundation." Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Lam, Lana. "Whistle-blower Edward Snowden Tells SCMP: 'Let Hong Kong People Decide My Fate'" South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post, 12 June 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

MacAskill, Ewen, and James Ball. "Portrait of the NSA: No Detail Too Small in Quest for Total
Surveillance." The Guardian. The Guardian, 2 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

MacAskill, Ewen, Julian Borger, and Glenn Greenwald. "The National Security Agency: Surveillance Giant with Eyes on America." The Guardian. The Guardian, 6 June 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Lam, Lana. "Whistle-blower Edward Snowden Tells SCMP: 'Let Hong Kong People Decide My Fate'" South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post, 12 June 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

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