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Pros And Cons Of The US Patriot Act

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Do you have a phone? Chances are you do. Would you be surprised if I said that people can view close to anything on your phone, computer, or any electronic device, without you knowing? The NSA (National Security Agency) listens to phone calls, looks at texts, and checks emails from over 300 million people, without them knowing. And the worst part: it is perfectly legal. The US Patriot Act, passed in 2001 due to the events on September 11th, specifically Section 215 of the U.S. Patriot Act, allows the government to gather “foreign intelligence information” from anyone in the US (citizen or not) without a warrant. The government should not be allowed to obtain information from companies/people without going through the law, because it violates the Constitution, it takes unnecessary info, and fosters government control. …show more content…

In layman’s terms, this means, “we don’t want a monarchy, so we’re making a government that allows people to have rights that we can’t take away.” The problem comes when you bring the Patriot Act to light: the government is taking away our liberty. The government allows itself to gather data on people, and that is right out unethical, even if it is legal. You should not have to tell anyone what you told your friend last, whether appropriate or not. The point is, whether what you said is bad or not, you should not have to give up the 1st amendment, just because your teacher, or some random person, says so, so why allow it with the

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In a world of continuous technological advancements, as a substantial advantage, the USA PATRIOT Act modernizes the law to recognize present-day threats and attacks. Based on reports by the Justice Department, prior to the introduction of the USA PATRIOT Act, some laws within the United States failed to account for modern-day technological advancements (Department of Justice, 2017). As an example, under the USA PATRIOT Act, government or law enforcement agencies are permitted to utilize advanced technological means to locate or identify individuals, if necessary. Furthermore, with technological advancements allowing for long-distance planning and attacks, contributors to the Congressional Digest report that the USA PATRIOT Act allows some officials

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255 Words | 2 Pages

Due to the enactment of the The Patriot Act back in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, the United States has felt its effect on their right to privacy. Many believe that the US has taken advantage of the act to spy on innocent Americans rather than actually gathering information on terrorists. Certain methods are used such as eavesdropping on phone calls, The Prism Program which contains vital information of americans across the internet. A bulk database of phone numbers etc, The Patriot Act does have its positive aspects in certain areas except privacy. However, it also comes with its cons as well.

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863 Words | 4 Pages

The USA PATRIOT Act stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. " This bill was signed into law with little debate on October 26, 2001, only 45 days after the attacks that rocked our country. The vote in favor of the law was overwhelming and bi-partisan – 98 to 1 in the US Senate and 357 to 66 in the US House of Representatives. Yet, the bill was 342 pages long, and many members of Congress now say they did not even read it before voting in favor. Author Steven Brill (2003) asserts in his book, After: Rebuilding and Defending America in the September 12 Era, that the version of the USA PATRIOT Act voted on by Congress was not the bill that had been approved in committee

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1074 Words | 5 Pages

Seventeen years ago, the United States and her people weren’t officially in any war or conflicts. Very few citizens had even heard of Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden, and ISIL was not even a blip on her radar. America’s involvement in middle eastern affairs and the War on Terror – a reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks – created a drastic change in our nation’s political and social landscape. The aftermath of the attacks forced America to reevaluate their ideas regarding, safety and privacy. After the attacks of September 11th, the laws and regulations that have since passed have drastically improved national security, although the reduction in privacy, effects on foreign relations, and the lasting consequences of the War on Terror have had negative

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1131 Words | 5 Pages

The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The USA Patriot Act was passed by Congress as a reaction to the fear based oppressor assaults of September 11, 2001. The Act permits government authorities more prominent expert in following and blocking interchanges, both for motivations behind law authorization and remote insight gathering. It gives the Secretary of the Treasury administrative forces to battle debasement of US budgetary foundations for outside tax evasion purposes; it all the more effectively attempts to close our outskirts to remote fear mongers and to confine and evacuate those inside our fringes; it builds up new violations,

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615 Words | 3 Pages

This means government agencies, like the NSA, don't need to have probable cause that's required to get a warrant. (CITATIONS)This is similar to 1984 because everyone is getting surveillanced without cause or permission. Many people will be saying that this is an ill comparison and that the patriot act isn’t akin to 1984 in this way, but if you think about it the patriot act is worse. The inner party tracks their citizens through the telescreen. Telescreens aren't perfect though.

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But within the context of Jacqueline Klosek’s The War on Privacy she describes, the USA Patriot Act, as it condemns an individual of those rights to be justified and knowledgeable of the forthcoming search. With that being said authorities conduct unreasonable searches. It is an indefensible act that rejects citizens of their rights of privacy. Accordingly, authorities have the right to harass a person at any time under their own discretion. And as a result individuals may be subject to an arrest.

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203 Words | 1 Pages

The Patriot Act is able to know everything about us from the things deleted to the people we call and have a conversation with. While this sounds scary and like we have no privacy at all this is actually helping us out in the long run. Patriot Act allows law enforcement to conduct investigations and find dangerous people such as

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152 Words | 1 Pages

Based on the principles of rights ethics, individuals have certain privileged rights and one of them is privacy and protection against invasion of personal rights and property. Individual rights can be moral, legal or ethical in nature and have to be respected by everyone, be it the person next door or the government. Thus, NSA’s interference into the personal lives of U.S citizens and foreign nationals, by collecting data without their knowledge, is nowhere near ethical or moral. If they had to do so based on so called reasons of “national security”, NSA should have disclosed their actions to the public and justified their mode of operation. Overall, national security is important so safeguard the nation, but at the same time, individual

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221 Words | 1 Pages

After the 9/11 attacks on the US, the NSA, or “National Security Agency”, began doing surveillance on the country in order to find terrorists and stop them. The NSA, or National Security Agency, is an American intelligence agency specifically designed for national security. According to their website, “The majority of our nation’s intelligence for counterterrorism, hard targets, and support to military operations comes from the NSA.” However, US citizens are complaining that the NSA’s method for “securing our nation” is “unethical” and “unconstitutional”. They feel like they’re being “violated” and that their “right to privacy” is being overruled.

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1691 Words | 7 Pages

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows U.S. intelligence agencies to acquire foreign intelligence information by monitoring foreign persons in the USA and abroad. This act ensures that intelligence agencies can respond in time to terminate a security threat. The most important part of this act, the Section 702 forbids deliberate monitoring of US citizens and their communication. Technically NSA has been violating this act ever since it has been enacted in 2008 because, as we know, they have been monitoring all US citizenry.

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They have the ability to record and store private conversation and read emails

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of this nation, had previously addressed a topic that we have been battling with today by stating that, "those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. " We can decipher from Franklin’s quote that to him, privacy is more important than “so-called” safety. Likewise, the common notion that most people have is that the NSA was established after 9/11 in order to keep us “secure” from outside attacks, however, these assumptions are far from the truth. The NSA was actually created on November 4, 1952 at the command of President Truman in order to provide security during WWII. The Guardian conducted an interview with an NSA worker named William

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

Apple letting the FBI into their system to see terrorist data poses extreme risks, because as soon as Apple has “a back door installed, all kinds of people can walk in” (“Apple vs. The FBI”). Essentially, if the government can invade privacy, untrustworthy people can as well. Most importantly however, there must be limits placed on what the government can do, lest they infringe the basic rights of citizens. How can anybody stand having their data mined without consent? The government knows “Americans’ social connections … their associates, their locations at certain times, their travelling companions, and other personal information” (Engler).

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712 Words | 3 Pages

You are then under a much heavier level of surveillance. Your phone is tracked and used as a microphone, camera, and geolocation device. Snowden also described that they have the ability to sit at their desk and see what you are doing on your computer or device in real time. This is a very scary thought that they have the ability to do this to just about anybody in the U.S. whenever they

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