The Importance Of Government Spying

Recently, the U.S. government has been accused of spying on citizens and other people in different countries including high profile people like the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel and the President of Brazil, Dilma Rouseff. The U.S. Constitution states that under the Fourth Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause” (Pauley). Everyone has a right to privacy, but ever since the Snowden disclosures in 2013, the public now knows that the government is keeping a close eye on the lives of individuas. In the present day, the government is legally able to collect data from

They are also able to analyze ‘metadata’ which is data about data. With the majority of the public losing interest in their privacy, the government will continue to monitor the activities of everyday citizens in the next five years and possibly well in to the future. The government is breaking their own law, that is the Fourth Amendment which gives people the right to privacy. Federal Judge Richard J. Leon is quoted saying, “I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary’ invasion than this systematic and high tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen…” (Pauley). The judge was referring to the NSA’s action of breaking privacy law without approval on December 16th, 2013. In another quote from Pauley’s article, “… the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) admitted to covering up the use of information illegally obtained from the National Security Agency (NSA) and falsifying the source of evidence” (Pauley). The NSA was listening to

Shortly after, government officials figured that if they could tap phone communications and listen in they could use that to their advantage in catching criminals early before they are able to carry out whatever crime they are about to commit. Also after the attacks, the government passed new legislation to strengthen the communication between intelligence agencies and the leaders of the U.S. at the time. This new legislation was known as the Patriot Act. As reported by Alex Kingsbury in his article in 2001 “Government Secrecy” he writes, “After 9/11 terrorist attacks, government secrecy expands exponentially…USA Patriot Act further limits the release of information related to national security… (Kingsbury). The government keeps quiet and the administration focuses on keeping national security stable after passing the Patriot Act on October 25, 2001. In keeping with the government’s goal of stabilizing national security, the Patriot Act basically allowed officials to legally go through personal information without a warrant to see if people are going to become potential terrorists or a threat to national security. The Patriot Act is controversial and Section 215 of it outlines what the government is able to seize from the