Scott Hartsell Professor Campbell English 1102 29 April 2014 The NSA: Is security worth sacrificing your privacy?

In our current day and age, technology is becoming ever more present in our daily lives most people do not go ten minutes without checking their smartphones. I will admit to being a culprit of that myself. But as we utilize technology in new ways, a single drawback reoccurs. Through the power of the internet, text messages, and phone calls (to mention a few of a quite lengthy list) one core thing is conveyed: information. When you stop and think about it, a lot more information is actually available about you than you previously thought. Say you went to read a news article: the company running the server that hosts the webpage could keep a file stating when you read the article, how long you stayed on the webpage, if you entered other information on it, and even where you read the article from. It could then sell that information to companies like Google who would then formulate personalized ads on certain webpages using Google Adsense. Google would also track your searches on their engine and the time, location, and various other factors. The point here is that if someone were to link together your searches and visited webpages, a lot could be learned about you and your purchasing habits, lifestyle, and your travel history. Add in phone records and text messages from your cell phone carrier and you bring in even more information that is even more private and revealing. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed to the world that there was a government agency known as the NSA that was collecting

Hartsell 2 essentially all of this information, and then some, on citizens of the United States and as many people throughout the rest of the world as legally possible (Stray). It is hard to say if the collection of all of this data was legal or not simply because no other government had thought one organization would be collecting this amount of data on such a scale. The fact that the NSA was tapping into the phone calls of almost every world leader without them knowing is still quite mind-blowing (Stokes). This agency and their programs were also minimally publicized and promoted about their existence as well as their actions. Obviously, the response of the general public to the exposure of the NSA and PRISM (a government program associated with the NSA) was highly negative simply because it was kept a secret from them. The real question that is now in debate is whether the NSA is even legal and if their actions and goals are justifiable in exchange for our and others privacy. Obviously, there are two answers to this question yes, the NSA is doing the right thing to protect us from terrorism, or no - I do not want someone to know that I went to Walmart on a Tuesday afternoon for an embarrassing medication, simply because I had used my cell phone while I was picking it up. To really formulate an answer to this question, we need to figure out exactly what information was being recorded by the NSA, on what scale, and who was affected. Jonathan Stray, a writer for ProPublica (a website that promotes journalism in the public interest) states that e-mails and phone records seem to be the most widely collected data by the government. Phone records entail the phone numbers of the caller and the receiver of the call as well as the length of the call and the location of both people. In fact, in April of 2013 there was a secret court order to Verizon that forced them to hand over mass amounts of these phone records, known as metadata data that describes other data (Stray). This was to remain secret

Hartsell 3 until the year 2038. Metadata is a term used to define mass amounts of data that are collected and could then potentially be used to identify trends in behavior or connect specific patterns. Other data that is collected includes social media posts and instant messages, text messages, and Google and Bing searches. PRISM, a government program related to the NSA, allows direct access to almost all information available from several major technology companies that the general public interacts with on a daily basis. This is really how the NSA collects the majority of its information, with the cooperation of major corporations. An example of this would be users of Microsoft Windows PCs. The operating system could track everything you do on the computer and report directly to the company, which would then report to the government. As described by an article from the Washington Post, Google, Microsoft, Youtube, AOL, Yahoo! and many other companies comply with PRISM allowing easy access to loads of information previously thought to be private. With all this data being collected, you would think that numerous terrorist attacks had been stopped by these programs. Why else would the government need access to almost all of your communications and locations? Why else would the government be trying to spy upon the entire world population? Essentially anyone with an internet connection or any sort of telephone, be it a cell phone or a land line, is at risk of being a target of the NSA this makes up a high percentage of the population. Anyone carrying a cell phone could have their location tracked at all times simply using the built-in GPS. [The] NSA argues that its employees only carry out the actions necessary to find terrorists and protect our country. They have even claimed

Hartsell 4 that terrorist attacks have been prevented as a result of their actions according to Ted Poe from Fox News (Poe). Poe says that he was told by the Deputy Attorney General, James Cole, that maybe one actual criminal case had actually been made. This means that only one person had been formally accused in a court over information collected by the NSA. This could also mean that there have been numerous arrests not made by a public court or not made public, which is a little creepy. This, in turn, raises its own trove of questions. Why would the government keep these programs as top secret as possible? If more terrorists had been stopped by these programs then why would they not have been publicly broadcasted and celebrated? The NSA does not just stop at the collection of data on citizens they also publicly admitted to espionage, which was honestly to be expected but not on close allies such as the United Kingdom or France. Espionage is the act of spying upon other governments to gain information on political and military plans in order to have the upper hand. With that amount of power to collect information and the ability to keep it under the wraps from the entire world, there is no way that they would not be spying upon other countries. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 56 percent of Americans said it is unacceptable for the United States to monitor the phone calls of the leaders of allied nations, including Merkel. Just 36 percent said it is a tolerable practice (Stokes). Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany, which is akin to our US President. Wiretapping is one thing, but to spy upon the entire government is, frankly, a completely different story. In Germany, there is a US military base in Greisheim that seems innocent with a few modest buildings, which leads people to believe that there is actually a huge underground operation going on (Sultan). The NSA also teams up with other foreign intelligence agencies

Hartsell 5 such as the BND, the German intelligence agency, to expand its net of surveillance. It has also been revealed, though, that espionage is a larger part of the NSAs agenda than previously thought according to Christopher Sultan. Hayden, a four-star general who is now retired, does not deny that the NSA is involved in espionage. "We steal secrets. We're number one in it," he says." But, he adds, this is not malicious or industrial espionage. "We steal stuff to make you safe, not to make you rich" (Sultan). The biggest problem with the NSA is not the actual data collection it is the abuse of the power of data collection and access. Since the NSAs inception, there has been an independent board and a private secret court that are both supposed to be monitoring the agency for abuse of power and all violations of rights. Unfortunately, they were also kept in the dark about the extent of the surveillance that was going on, Sarah Childress reports. The administration has pointed to two entities an independent review board, and a secret court charged with overseeing the governments surveillance programs. But both have recently indicated that the government didnt fully inform them about the extent of its operations (Childress). This information seems to reveal that the government has been lying to much more than just the general population. This is where the whole situation gets even sketchier, writes Sarah Childress. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which consists of five members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, only began its work in earnest in recent months (Childress). These checks that have supposedly been in place really have not been. The board

Hartsell 6 has been misinformed for years and prolonged as long as possible from acting on anything and everything, which has allowed the NSA to do as they please without limits. Monitoring foreign countries and their governments are one thing stealing secrets for the security of America are logical actions. It would probably be a good idea to monitor North Koreas nuclear missiles to prepare for a possible attack, or another country with an unstable government that could potentially possess weapons of mass destruction. To spy upon your own citizens and keep them in the dark about it though, does not seem right to me. So few terrorists have actually been stopped by this mass invasion of privacy that the NSAs stated goals of stopping terrorism with this data collection seem to be a cover-up of something else. Again, there could be more terrorists stopped by this surveillance that are not publicly released, but the likelihood of that is very low. A few educated guesses could be made about the true purpose most leading to simple paranoia of those in power. Keep in mind that the NSA was kept secret and was meant to be kept secret for as long as possible. Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed that the NSA was collecting such data on American citizens, is now wanted by the US government for treason. Did he actually do anything wrong? He exposed a government program that should have been made public to begin with, but is now a wanted criminal. He did not even expose the whole program only the major parts that affect you and me. Certain information he did not publicly release from government documents to specifically protect the U.S. obviously he was not trying to destroy the program or relations with other countries, but to simply publicize what was going on because there was an abuse of the power at hand. The governments actions in response to Snowden and their behavior in keeping these operations as

Hartsell 7 secret as possible can definitely lead to other conclusions than preventing terrorist attacks when there are none to reference. It is basically impossible to find an instance where the NSAs surveillance has notably been used to stop a crime from happening. Most Americans would agree that they do not approve of the NSA violating their privacy, or that of other world leaders and their respective nations, but if it is for the general safety of the public then most would also support the program (Stokes). If more checks were actually put into place about the NSA and its true goals were made clear and understood by the general public, then it would be a program worth supporting. In theory, the National Security Agency is a good idea collecting data on citizens deemed suspicious for the safety of all. But the factors that deem someone as suspicious are unknown, as well as how many people are on a specific watch list. Most people are just part of the metadata stream, with their data being stored for potential future access. This topic has died down from the initial hubbub it received, but the NSA should be investigated further by the public. When the NSA was exposed, the Office of National Intelligence launched a tumblr with the administrations public statements, declassified documents and a list of hot topics like civil liberties to provide immediate, ongoing and direct access to factual information on the surveillance conducted by the American intelligence community (Childress). More people should do their own research and demand answers and make sure that the boards that are supposed to be in place are actually in place. There is still a lot of unknown information about the NSA and its activities, but with the right safeguards in place the NSA would be a good tool for ensuring the safety of American citizens. And with the cooperation of other foreign intelligence agencies, the rest of the world could be safe as well.

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Works Cited Childress, Sarah. "Just the Facts: How Good Are the Checks on NSA Surveillance?" PBS. PBS, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. Gellman, Barton, and Laura Poitras. "U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program." Washington Post. Washington Post, 7 June 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Poe, Rep.. "The day we fight back against NSA spying and big government's big secret." Fox News. Fox News, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Stokes, Bruce. "NSA Spying: A Threat to US Interests?." NSA Spying: A Threat To US Interests? Yale, 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Stray, Jonathan. "FAQ: What You Need To Know About the NSAs Surveillance Programs." ProPublica. N.p., 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. Sultan, Christopher. "Germany Is a Both a Partner to and a Target of NSA Surveillance." SPIEGEL ONLINE. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.