Great attention has been taken of late to the collection of metadata being done by the National Security Agency, a.k.a the NSA. Thanks to the information leaked by former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden (issues about him, but that will be for another day) and testimony from specialists have revealed that for years, the NSA has been collecting the call records of everyone in the United States, irrespective of whether they have been relevant to an actual investigation or not. NSA executives, as well as many top government officials, have stressed that such programs were not involved in actual spying on American citizens, but further research has shown that such programs were not only done through certain venues, including recent reveals such as apps like Angry Birds and Google Maps, to siphon user data, but also involved systems to spy on the phones of foreign leaders, like German chancellor Angela Merkel (not really surprised by this last point, Im sure plenty of countries do such programs, but that will be for another time) In my opinion, and Im sure of many, the activity of the NSA in the unhindered collection of call metadata of American citizens is unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, states that property should not be seized without probable cause. Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the NSA uses to defend its activities, actually doesnt authorize what it is doing. The section allows the F.B.I. to obtain court orders demanding that a person or company produce collectable information, upon showing reasonable grounds that the things sought are relevant to an authorized foreign intelligence investigation. This statute allows the NSA to collect only information it can plausibly argue is relevant to a particular investigation. Without that showing of probable cause, there is no collection. Therefore, there is no justification for the continuation of such a program. No matter the reasoning for it, it is an overreach. I value security as Im sure most Americans do, but we shouldnt throw away the values, principles, and freedoms we value in order to do so. forbes/sites/jennifergranick/2014/01/24/told-ya-so-nsas-collection-of-metadata-is-screamingly-illegal/ news.cnet/8301-1009_3-57617860-83/nsa-using-leaky-apps-like-angry-birds-google-maps-to-siphon-user-data/ theguardian/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls theguardian/world/2014/feb/01/edward-snowden-intelligence-leak-nsa-contractor-extract archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 18:04:31 +0000
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