Argumentative Essay: The National Security Agency (NSA)

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organization that is part of the United States Government. Their responsibility is to protect citizens from foreign and internal dangers. This is done through surveillance cameras, phone tracking, and computer programs so, where exactly is the line drawn from being safe to invasive? Although, surveillance may now just be a social expectation among the world. The United States has been known for spying on its allies just as other countries have been known for spying on the United States and their own country 's allies. Spying has no real specific date when it was originated, but a good guess would be a very long time ago, possibly when there were cavemen. The men would send someone from their

In October of this year German Chancellor Angela Merkel found out that the US government had been tapping her own personal cell phone. Her response was, "Spying among friends, that 's just not on." (Should the U.S. Be Spying on Its Friends?). This scenario invades not only someone’s privacy, but the leader of Germany. Nobody should have their phones tapped without the knowledge of the person because that breaks the third amendment. Even if it is a US amendment it is carried out by the US citizens. Another way to look at this is, the United States was just being cautious. After all Germany was the country Hitler rose to power so easily back in the 1900s. On the other hand, our allies have been spying on us. China, for example, has been involved in cyber hacking the US by exposing the fingerprints of 5.6 million government employees. They did this despite the CIA 's improvements in their technology which will still most likely not be good enough to stop any future hackings. The Chinese intelligence could still cyber hack the US by using OPM data, using the visas of people with US ties (U.S. pulls spies from China after hack). China most likely does this because they do not trust us after some of the decisions we have made in the past like dropping the atomic bombs on their neighboring country of Japan in World War II. Do not forget this

Edward Snowden was known for the person who leaked a bunch of top secret NSA documents about surveillance. This happened in 2013 when he was working for the NSA. He had started noticing that they were spying on American citizens through an umbrella program called PRISM. Snowden began copying top-secret NSA documents he found invasive and disturbing. When he had enough information he fled to China for the beginning stages of the fallout. On June 5, documents Snowden obtained were release in the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper. On June 14 Snowden was charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence with an unauthorized person. Snowden’s response was "I 'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can 't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building.” (Edward Snowden Biography). Here is a clear cut example of why the government should limit their use of surveillance. It invades people 's privacy as Snowden found it and breaks people’s basic liberties. It is another thing to do this kind of activity, but a whole another thing to do this activity in secret, be accused of it, and then lie that you are not doing any