The National Security Agency: Government Surveillance

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Americans are generally unaware of what happens to the information they share on the web. Internet users share pictures and make comments without realizing their words are forever woven into the fabric of the internet, allowing open access to everything they type, post, and comment on. This information, known as metadata, is constantly monitored. The United States has been granted the ability to secretly examine, store, and distribute the metadata of potentially millions of people with the greatest surveillance capabilities ever seen in human history due to the USA PATRIOT Act. Unrestrained from the checks and balances of the judicial branch, surveillance agencies such as the National Security Agency, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance …show more content…
Since its formation, the agency has expanded its power and outreach, due to a plethora of technological innovations. Additionally, the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001 granted them increased surveillance capabilities in order to defend the American people against the growing threat of terrorism. The act contains three provisions: The Roving Wiretap Power, The Library Provision, and The Lone Wolf Provision; allocating the NSA’s authority over call monitoring, access to personal records of terrorist suspects, and the ability to investigate foreigners without any known affiliations to terrorist groups (Mascaro). These provisions were initially created to protect the American people from domestic and foreign threats, but have a large potential for misuse. The government can increase the specificity of these provisions and create strict guidelines, in order to avoid unconstitutional misinterpretation and still defend the United …show more content…
The Los Angeles Times, one of the most popular daily newspapers in the country, stated that a White House Panel’s investigation of the NSA’s bulk collection program found no evidence that the data collection program has helped to stop any terrorist plots; directly contradicting the words of President Obama, who claimed earlier that year in a public statement that the NSA had stopped 50 terrorist plots. The panel recommended that the collection of phone call records be terminated to protect the privacy rights of Americans (Isikoff). There is an obvious discrepancy between government officials regarding the definition of threats, and the true effectiveness of this program. Following the court rulings, the mounting evidence made it clear that the bulk collection of this metadata was unnecessary, and in 2015 President Obama passed the USA Freedom Act. This new act drastically limited the collection of bulk metadata, making it so the NSA could only collect data within two connections of a terror suspect, meaning their contacts’ contacts are the furthest which can be surveilled. Furthermore, the USA Freedom Act added a public interests panel in the FISA Courts to better represent the American people (USA Freedom Act). These new measures by the government reduces the number of innocent people surveilled on, and provides a voice for the public in the
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