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Edward Snowden Debate

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The opinions of average people on Edward Snowden are extremely polarized. Some people paint Snowden as a hero, loyal to democracy and exposing the evils of big government (“Securing Our Libery” 5). Other people label him as a traitor, endangering the lives of United States citizens and soldiers, since the enemy now knows more about our intelligence system (Walsh “Privacy Versus Security” 11). It is worth mentioning though, that even though Snowden says that he did everything to protect democracy in the nation he loves, he has chosen to take refuge in Hong Kong and Russia, countries that aren’t exactly known for their focus on democratic ideals (“Securing Our Liberty” 5).

Poster showing the public support for Edward Snowden and his leaking …show more content…

Well, one of the reasons is that it isn’t completely unrestricted by technicality. The NSA has to follow restrictions put in place by something called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC (Stray np). Things haven’t always been clear about this group, though. It was created in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to stop government eavesdropping, but all information about it was kept confidential and was unknown to the public until the Snowden leaks (Greenwald 27). The FISC does not fully stop the NSA from exceeding legal boundaries, however. In 2009, the Justice Department admitted that the collection of data by the NSA had “exceeded legal limitations” and later on in 2011, the FISC said that the NSA had violated the Fourth Amendment at least once (Stray …show more content…

One example is the FISA Amendments Act, specifically Section 702 which specifically allows for the collection of online data by the NSA (Drum 33). This was originally signed by George W. Bush in 2008, and it was renewed by President Barack Obama for five years in 2012 (Vicens 29). Another law regarding surveillance is the Stored Communications Act. Primarily, the SCA has been used to justify the storage of emails, but the storage of IP addresses was also justified in one court case involving inappropriate content being sent from a Yahoo! account. (“National Security Agency Surveillance Overview” np). There are countless other laws and court cases that mold and shape the idea of government surveillance, as just about anything involving the government’s access to information online can change the game

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Government surveillance is more prevalent than ever, and it is more out in the open than ever. This proves how government surveillance is often invasive and often defended by the judicial system created to protect the citizens, but instead attacks

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Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the United States government to gather foreign intelligence information concerning persons located outside of the country that are, or are connected to, a potential threat against the nation. In addition to protecting national security, the communications data collected under Section 702 has been used for criminal prosecution in domestic court cases. Since it passed in 2008, scholars have raised questions over the act’s constitutionality, especially about its consistence with the Fourth Amendment which protects both US and non-US persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. These scholars argue that not all communications gathered under Section 702 meet the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment and should therefore not be used in criminal cases. However, Section 702 mainly conflicts with the Constitution only when the act is used inappropriately by agencies to investigate people residing within the US rather than for its intended purpose of gathering foreign intelligence.

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Over the years following 9/11, facts about the secret surveillance program started to surface. As an investigation started being conducted, it was found that the program was not just listening in on calls and emails from abroad by quite of bit of activity monitoring was taking place within the United States causing a lot of controversy in the fact that people did not like the idea that their private information was being invaded by the NSA on authority of the president. Furthermore, there was a rise in concern for the Fourth Amendment rights against search and seizure violations of having individual’s emails taken and used against them without warrants. The Bush Administration worked with Congress immediately following the 9/11 attacks to pass and sign into law the USA Patriot Act that was “an overnight revision of the nation 's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government 's authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight, public accountability, and the ability to challenge government searches in court” (ACLU,

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Another major problem that could clearly lead to violations of the civil liberties of Americans is that most of the provision in the PATRIOT Act are unchecked. They state on their website that “Judicial oversight of these new powers is essentially non-existent. The government must only certify to a judge - with no need for evidence or proof - that such a search meets the statute 's broad criteria, and the judge does not even have the authority to reject the application.” The latitude given for allowing wire taps and monitoring phone call is also a sore spot for the act.

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Moreover, President George W. Bush created the Patriot Act which expanded the government’s surveillance powers of phone messages and emails. As a result, many Americans were troubled by the unlimited wiretaps and the collection of phone records. Overall, these federal organizations brought a sense of security and increased the power of the

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Still to this day Edward Snowden lives in Russia and now a movie came out about Edward Snowden. At the end the nsa collected data from the public and used it for military operations, business operations and able to search thru private information just like searching google. I think that Edward Snowden should be charged for stealing data to prove that the nsa was doing secret operations with secret money and taxpayer money without supervision, so they can roam free and do what they want and make the rules as they

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In conjunction with the above mentioned acts of terror, The Patriot Act section 215 that was passed in congress in 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attach reads. The section 215 reads, access to record items under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. The foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 reads, prescribes procedures for requesting judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States on behalf of a foreign power. When comparing the two acts against the fourth Amendment it is a violation of American’s privacy.

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On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck America. A terrorist attack was carried out resulting in 2,753 Americans killed. America became locked in a war, and it needed more security on its own soil. So, congress passed a law known as the Patriot Act. This allowed the N.S.A (national security agency) to gain information of individual citizens or groups of individuals by using library records, phone calls and other surveillance.

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The Need for NSA Domestic surveillance plays a vital role in maintaining the country’s national security, and to reassure the citizens that they are properly protected from foreign and domestic attacks. The National Security Agency monitors Americans and other individuals around the world, who may be considered to be potential threats to the United States, and therefore bringing the nation under a state of emergency. The NSA is a subtle and yet legitimate way of preventing attacks against the United States, as the agency is governed by a particular set of legal rules in which they are permitted to exercise their powers in the benefit of the nation’s well being. The professional surveillance carried out by the NSA is an integral part of the

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What the NSA does is unconstitutional and is an invasion of everyone's privacy. Most of the people that the NSA spies on have never committed a serious crime in their lifetime. The NSA uses many different devices and systems to get their information and to spy on us. They use mobile phones and many phone apps such as Angry Birds and many more popular games.

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“The Patriot Act broadly undermines the rights of all Americans. It reduces judicial oversight of a host of investigative measures, including wiretaps, expands the government 's ability to track individuals ' Internet use and gives federal officials expansive new powers that are in no way limited to investigating terrorist crimes. ( thenation) It authorizes an end run around the Fourth Amendment by allowing the government to conduct wiretaps and searches in criminal investigations, without probable cause of a crime, as long as the government claims that it also seeks to gather foreign intelligence--an authority that is particularly questionable in light of recent disclosures from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the FBI has

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The Fourth Amendment 's permits the government to monitor people who are not even thought to be doing anything wrong (surveillance procedures).Telephone calls and emails could be under surveillance, by the NSA or any other government program (Senate Committee).Documents show NSA conducts sweeping surveillance Americans international communications (Senate Committee). The courts must determine what constitutes a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment (Fourth Amendment). Therefore, The Fourth Amendment does protect our rights to privacy under searches and seizures. The Fourth Amendment makes people in American feel safe and secure. David Sirota says, “National Intelligence admitted illegal surveillance was still taking place"(understand).

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Looking back on the results of these types of programs, many wonder if the government has truly had success with these programs The intelligence programs centered around the NSA have grown at such a drastic rate that issues have risen around the legal circumstances of spying, the effectiveness of the program, and the reach of spying inside the country and the rest of the world. One of the biggest arguments is whether all of this is truly legal. The NSA and Barack Obama have both openly admitted to the collection of nationwide phone call and email data that is analyzed for our safety. Although this is done with the best intentions, critics will say that this is too far, as well as unconstitutional. These acts carried out by the government are “violations of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that ‘the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches

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" The essence of being an American has so much to do with freedom; the personal rights held by every individual in this country are often sacred to them. The government, at any level, does not have the right, much less the duty, to monitor internet content just as they do not have the right to ban books from schools or listen in on an individual’s phone calls without probable cause. Every American has a right to privacy that shall not be infringed by the government. Amendment IV of the constitution reads “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” There are no specific clauses in the constitution that provide legislature on the topic of government monitoring of the internet because the founders could not foresee the future. This does not mean that it is okay.

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The main issue in the Snowden controversy is the conflicting rights of private individuals and the US government with regard to the use of telecommunications and the internet. There are ethical issues surrounding this controversy and the most applicable ethical approach for this case is “Ethics by Rights Approach”. As a background, the reason why US government had declared Edward Snowden a traitor is his involvement in the leaking of about 1.7 million confidential US documents, 15,000 Australian intelligence files and 58,000 British intelligence files from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to the public. These confidential information were acquired by the NSA through the PRISM program by collaborating with big internet companies such

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