In the document “Hero or Traitor? Edward Snowden and the NSA Spying Program”, Edward Snowden, exposed various types of spying programs. He exposed these programs because they were invading the people’s privacy and he felt that it was important for the people to know.
On June 5, 2013, the very first report, a newspaper from London called The Guardian, reported that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting telephone records from millions of U.S. customers of telecommunications company Verizon. Journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed a top secret stating that The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) required Verizon to hand over information on telephone calls both between the U.S. and other countries.
The wiretapping program is used to collect data that is transmitted on a network and allows the government to eavesdrop without a warrant. The use of this program is easy for the NSA to snoop and allows the government to eavesdrop without having to present a warrant. President George W. Bush had addressed this program as a crucial part to the National Security Agency, yet this announcement led to the wild growth of the NSA’s power. The NSA took advantage of the program and used it to spy on the conversations between foreign nationals, U.S. citizens, and international communications. However, curious of the program and questioning President Bush’s speech, a group from the U.S. senate decided to look into the situation.
In the article “FBI v. Apple Is Really About Edward Snowden” by Ted Rall, Rall speaks about the recent conflict between the U.S. government and the electronics company Apple. He first summarizes the recent conflict, in which Apple has refused to give the FBI the code to unlock the phone of Syed Farook, the head of the San Bernardino mass shooting. The reason behind Apple not releasing the code, says Rall, is that with this code the iPhones of many other people can also be accessed, not just the one needed. Yet here in this article Rall is saying that this is much different due to one man, and that is Edward Snowden. Rall states how a few years ago, Americans would have undeniably been against what Apple is currently refusing to do,
The National Security Agency also known as the NSA, it's an intelligent organization of the United States government who monitors foreign countries and collects information of people. The NSA is economically beneficial towards the government of the United States some reasons consist of the prevention of dangerous terrorist attacks, funding's in the government, and the prevention of hackers taking over the system. Though at the same time the NSA should be stopped because they have invaded the privacy of many people without their consents. Currently, the United States has been facing terrorist attack, which has caused many deaths and tragedies not only to the United States but as well towards the world.
According to the BBC, it has become known that the NSA was responsible in the massive surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans through the PRISM progra,, not just those who have suspected links to terrorism. Companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo routinely provided a back door for the NSA to tap into their servers and track online communications (Document 1). This article was released about two years after the leaks when the debates over the future of the PATRIOT Act started to intensify. The National Security Agency strong armed these firms into giving up clients’ private data. No one stood in their way because the NSA had the full backing of the blinded Congress.
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
In 2001 after the tragedy of 9/11 President George W. Bush passed the PATRIOT Act. The act is supposed to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks, but what it's actually doing is defying most principles this country was founded upon. Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act enables the FBI and the NSA to listen to the phone records of millions of Americans. Not only is the government invading the privacy of millions, but the way it's being done is illegal. The government is invading on the personal lives of people who have never been suspected of being a terrorist.
Ever since Harry Truman, the government has been keeping internet and phone records. But now, it’s gone too far. On October 26, 2001, President George W Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. When it went through Congress, the House of Representatives passed the act with a vote of
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).
There’s a question americans usually ask themselves, is the government trustable? Many citizens would answer no, many americans believe that the government is constantly watching them. The privacy of americans citizens is being violated by the gps trackers in our phones that the government can see and monitor, how the governments listens to our calls and how they store all our information. This is similar to the privacy violations explored in 1984 by showing how in 1984 Big Brother is constantly watching it’s citizens.
Snowden, who was a computer systems contractor, worked for the National Security Agency and revealed to the public how the American Government was spying on its own citizens and foreigners. Snowden was committed to the truth which allowed him to reason and understand the difference between what is right and what is legal. Snowden was convinced that the truth requires an individual to do the right thing and not necessarily what is legal. However, doing the right thing could sometimes require an individual to break the law.
The truth is that “The US government, with assistance from major telecommunication carriers including AT&T, has engage in massive, illegal dragnet surveillance of the domestic communications and communication records of millions of ordinary Americans” (Rumold). People who have never committed any action that would flag a terrorist plot are having their communication information exposed to the government due to AT&T reporting all of their customer’s phone calls. Users, knowing their conversations are being recorded, have to live in fear because they have to be careful of every word they speak. This fear rejects the people from privacy and freedom because they have to continuously live in fear of their own government. AT&T surveillances user’s actions by “installing a fiber optic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails web browsing and other internet traffic to and from AT&T customers and provides those copies to the NSA”(Rumold).
A few weeks later, these documents were released by The Guardian, and Edward Snowden was the reliable source. Now, people all over knew that the United States Government was spying on its own people through messages, internet searches, browser history, smart T.V’s and many many more. This case is ongoing, as he seeks asylum in other countries. This newfound information raises the question, is Mr. Snowden a traitor, or did he save us all by “blowing the whistle” to warn us about the unconstitutional collection of our private possessions protected by
The National Security Agency is an intelligence organization in the United States that monitors not only foreign countries but American citizens as well. Known as a whistleblower to some, but a true hero, Edward Snowden leaked classified documents from the NSA leaving almost everyone second guessing the government and how secure their phones are. Edward Snowden dropped out of his high school before he was even 16 years old and went to community college instead because he wanted to study computers. He attended Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland two different times. This first was from 1999 to 2001 and then again from 2004 to 2005.
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
The Role of Secrecy Secrecy can exist anywhere, within groups of people or simply environment settings. There is always access to anything considered to be a “secret.” As it was mentioned in class, the past can always be re-narrative, therefore re-told. Although one may think there will be disclosure about something said or done, there is no guarantee. There is a sense of gain for someone who discovers or exposes the secrecy that exists.