ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of NSA Privacy

842 Words4 Pages

Imagine for a second that every phone call you make, every text message you send, and every place you go is being constantly monitored by multiple governments. Well this is basically what the United State and United Kingdom's government is doing on a daily basis. The United States National Security Agency has been implementing projects in secret to monitoring people since 2001 but it would still be kept as a secret if Edward Snowden did not reveal this massive secret that was intruding the public’s privacy for years.
The U.S. surveillance program started because of the September 9th, 2001 terrorist attack that hijacked airplanes and slammed them into the World Trade Center towers. It evolve over time and President George W. Bush’s "Terrorist Surveillance Program" had created PRISM. This program gave NSA access to “Big Data” like phone’s metadata and data that are sent over the internet (Gellman B and Poitras L). This issue became aware to the public at June 6th, 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed to the items to The Guardian. …show more content…

Well the answer to this questions is no. According to CNN, “The CIA had quite a bit of information about two of the hijackers and their presence in the United States before 9/11,” and their threat reports was shared with Bush administration official but even after multiple warnings, the Bush administration was not able to respond to these threats appropriately (Bergen P). Even though it is clear that NSA spying would not resolve in the prevention of such a detrimental terrorist attack, it is still their reason on continuing the program. The NSA also did not prevent the Boston bombing on April 15, 2013, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 people (Levitz J). The NSA spends around $2 billion each year but the results that the government is getting is not quite promising (Sahadi J). It is ironic how the people that pay the taxes to the government is actually the ones getting spied

Show More
Related
422 Words | 2 Pages

NSA SPYING PROGRAMMES The United States of America has been ranked the best country with a strong security and defense capability and currently still holds the position. Over the years from independence, the U.S.A continue to increase in strengthen and power to self-defend and ability to intercept major issues around the world. From the World War II and other subsequence wars that followed, the whole world can testify to the superiority of the American Military and their efficiency in the field. This doesn’t just stop there; USA spends almost 20% of their budget on the defense and security of the nation.

Read More
567 Words | 3 Pages

Overall, the Patriot Act may have helped to prevent terrorism, but it came at a cost. Before 9/11, there were a few other terrorist attacks that alerted Americans. One such attack was the Oklahoma City bombing. The bombing occurred in 1995. A truck containing explosives was driven to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and it was detonated.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective.

Read More
636 Words | 3 Pages

The USA Patriot Act signed into law by both congress and George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, exactly a month and fifteen days after the terrorist attack. Solemnly, the Patriot Act was altered to strengthen U.S.measure to deter and punish terrorist acts against the United States. The Patriot Act was intended to "enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them," the words of George W. Bush. I believe the intents of

Read More
1203 Words | 5 Pages

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Anthrax scare of 2001, Congress moved with tremendous force to make new powers for the federal government to prevent future terrorism. The most extensive effort was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (nicknamed the USA Patriot Act) of 2001, signed into law on October 26, less than six weeks after the attacks on 9/11. The legislation granted additional wiretapping and surveillance authority to federal law enforcement, removed barriers between law enforcement and intelligence agencies, added financial disclosure and reporting requirements to stop terrorist funding, and gave greater authority to the

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Ever since the Patriot Act came into effect, innocent Americans have been caught in the middle of a “danger zone” where they can be spied on and tracked at all times. The Patriot Act would be much more advantageous if the purpose was to catch regular criminal activity because that is virtually all it has done. To put into context how far the powers of the Patriot Act are being misused, in the span of three years (2003-2006), the FBI “issued 192,499 NSL’s of which only one led to a terror-related conviction, which would have occurred even without the Patriot Act” (Science of Security). Not only that, “as a result of 143,074 NSL’s issued between 2003 and 2005, the FBI made 53 reported criminal referrals to prosecutors of which 17 were for money laundering, 17 related to immigration, 19 involved in fraud, but zero were terror-related” (Justice). Lastly, “of the 3,970 sneak and peek searches in 2010, 76% were drug related and 24% were accredited to other crimes, while less than one percent were terror-related” (Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts for Delayed-Notice Search Warrants and Extensions).

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

The Patriot Act is supposed to improve “our counter-terrorism efforts in several significant ways” ("What Is the USA Patriot Web."). This act allows law enforcement the tools to investigate organized crime and law enforcement agencies to share information to improved cases. The Patriot Act made it easier for law enforcement to retrieve the evidence and the consequences for terrorist crimes stronger. For example,

Read More
1277 Words | 6 Pages

The U.S follows a different school of surveillance. Despite the fundamental right to be held “innocent until proven guilty”, it monitors everyone until proven innocent. The status quo could of course damage America’s long known liberties granted by the Constitution. Recent revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, have confirmed that the government is more likely to cross some constitutional lines in the name of national security. “The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) regulates the government’s acquisition of any electronic surveillance within the country for foreign intelligence use.

Read More
1691 Words | 7 Pages

NSA hides the fact that they are monitoring on US citizens without the warrant as they find some connection between the person monitored and some illegal activity to justify their monitoring. At first, after the 9/11, President George W. Bush started a program of mass monitoring of US communication. He had started it without FISA Court’s knowledge and when the population find out about this Congress had to create and enact the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 and inside was the crucial Section 702 that, by law, validates mass monitoring over the last 7 years. These communication monitoring systems rely on these two statutes: FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Section 702) and Patriot Act (Section 215).

Read More
792 Words | 4 Pages

The measures that the U.S government has put fourth such the Patriot Act and the Terrorist Surveillance Program only invade the privacy of American people and does not prevent terrorism. The worst part of all of this being done by the government was that the programs which were like the Terrorist Surveillance Program was released to the public, the government was unlawfully reviewing and searching the American people’s information and communications secretly. These had been going unknown for a span of around ten years

Read More
1281 Words | 6 Pages

Many governments have been buying private-sector databases that are able to intercept online data and see peoples’ communications. This is a serious problem because if the government continues to do this privately, people can not do anything about it, having no proof to stop it. Although there are laws that protect citizens from government surveillance, these laws are very vague and can not be put into action when no one knows that it is occurring. Philip Bump writes in How Much Do We Pay the NSA to Spy on the US states, “ The NSA probably costs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a month.” (Bump “The Atlantic”)

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

US News reports the FISA and USA Patriot Act as a "privacy scandal" (Fox, 2013). NPR News reports the concern of "civil liberty[ies] groups" protesting the USA Patriot Act and the concern for the authorities to demand business records from various companies (Johnson, 2011, p.1). What the media fails to convey to the general public is the intent of these Acts is to combat terrorism and not to invade privacy. Millions of people travel the world every day snapping photos from their digital cameras and iPhones. Perhaps to capture a memory or an unusual event, and sometimes other people in the background.

Read More
190 Words | 1 Pages

Every day 3 billion phone records are stored. This goes on every single day. NSA is invading everyone 's privacy. Every day 3 billion phone records are stored. All your selfies on your phone are taken and the NSA can turn your webcam on without you knowledge.

Read More
1857 Words | 8 Pages

Some people might argue that since 911 we have not had a major terrorist attack on US soil, which would imply that it is working. A terrorist attack like 911 has never taken place before and hasn’t happened since. Also the NSA spying programs would not have been helpful “we already know that more NSA spying would not have stopped 9/11; most of the needed information was already held by the U.S. government and was simply not properly shared or acted upon”(Van Buren,

Read More
1483 Words | 6 Pages

The government seems to believe that spying on its citizen is an effective way to find criminals. However, the cause of this action outweighs the benefits because it is too risky and in some cases, can not be trusted. In the current status quo, organizations like the NSA and other intelligent agencies seem to be intercepting civilians private actions. Phone calls, E-mails, credit card information, and metro card can all be viewed by the government and used to investigate people's day to day action. By linking all these information together, the government can learn what an individual is doing, with who, where, and when.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of NSA Privacy

Related Topics

Open Document