...The Ethics of the NSA Mass-Surveillance Program University Name Student Name Course Number/Name Professor Name Date Introduction One of the most explosive scandals of the 21st century was involved the National Security Agency (NSA), and the revelations that the agency had set up a robust, warrantless mass surveillance program in the years after the 9/11 attacks. Designed to pick up bits of intelligence that could be used in order to thwart future 9/11 attacks, critics of the program argued that not only was it unconstitutional given the lack of warrants obtained prior to engaging in the program, but that it was ineffective at stopping any kind of real terrorism. Supporters pushed back that the program was an essential tool for fighting terrorists who had become more advanced digitally, often using the internet in order to communicate with each other. Much of the discussion on the program related to the ethical appropriateness of the NSA’s activities. This paper will summarize the NSA’s surveillance program and discuss it from the perspective of utilitarianism and Kantian ethics; in addition, the paper will discuss the author’s personal viewpoint of the program. Summary of the Program The NSA spying program, named the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” by the New York Times, focused on monitoring the communications of between 500 and 1000 people within the United States with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda (Dunn, 2015). Many of these individuals were American citizens,...
Words: 1335 - Pages: 6
...NSA Surveillance Program The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was created in 1978 as a response to past presidential abuses of massive domestic wiretapping and surveillance that were conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) on many innocent Americans. FISA was designated to limit warrantless foreign intelligence surveillance for national security purposes and to issue the extent to which NSA could seize domestic communications. An executive power would need a warrant approved by FISA and only for the cases where the sole intention for the surveillance was to obtain foreign intelligence information (Skalski 15). Things changed shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 when President Bush secretly gave authorization to the NSA to wiretap Americans on the US soil without a warrant from FISA. By the same year, the Bush Administration passed the Patriotic Act that enabled FBI to demand the sharing of “any tangible things sought relevant to an authorized investigation” (Barnett 4), including strictly domestic records. Also, three days after the terrorist attacks, the Congress passed AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) Act that was a necessity, but it was wrongly used by the Bush Administration as the reason of permission for the massive spying program. Because of the secrecy of these surveillance transmissions, the American public had no idea of the existence of these...
Words: 2180 - Pages: 9
...Surveillance Awareness Project A proposal prepared by Team Underachievers Shea Polansky Gabriela Cde Baca Jacob Nevarez Elliot Nicholas For Dr. Natasha Jones University of New Mexico 2014-10-21 Team Underachievers Memo TO:Dr. Natasha Jones FROM:Team Underachievers DATE:2014-10-7 SUBJECT:Proposal PURPOSE:To acquaint you with our proposal Dear Dr. Jones, Edward Snowden’s leaks about the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs created a global debate about privacy, security, and safety. The NSA has the capability to read email, snoop on private social network conversations, observe phone call records, and track the physical locations of citizens not charged nor suspected of any crime, without so much as a warrant. Worse, the demographic most affected this level of snooping on our digital lives, the 18-24 year-old college crowd, is the least knowledgeable and most politically apathetic about the issue. This is a recipe for disaster, and this proposal seeks funding for an awareness campaign that will address it. This campaign will raise awareness about mass surveillance and the Snowden disclosures. We will use posters and flyers to dry attention to the issue. We will use the University of New Mexico as a testing ground, using before and after surveys to gauge effectiveness. If the campaign proves successful, we will recruit volunteers and raise a second round of funding to bring the campaign to college campuses across...
Words: 3481 - Pages: 14
...NSA Surveillance Program Eric D. Reeves ITT Tech Online MG517 – Ethical and Regulatory Environment Dr. Carrie A. O'Hare June 9, 2013 Abstract/Executive Summary The American people are reaping what they sow. They were so eager to have any semblance of security after 9/11, that they allowed the Patriot Act to be rammed through Congress and signed into law all in a matter of days despite warnings from critics that it could be used to infringe upon citizens’ rights. NSA Surveillance Program has been in the news over the past week. It was revealed Wednesday June 5, 2013 in The Guardian that the NSA had requested the phone records of millions of Version’s customers regardless of whether they were suspected of suspicious activity or not. In addition it seems that other carriers are requesting similar information. * Introduction: This week millions of Americans was informed by The Guardian of a top-secret government order that was approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, requiring that Verizon release and hand over millions of Americans’ phone records to the national Security Agency. Of course this information made many Americans uncomfortable and people started freaking out. Then the Washington Post reported that not only has the government been keeping an eye on whom we call, when, and how long we talk to them, but it’s also been tapping into the servers of nine major U.S. Internet companies and collecting emails, photos, videos, documents, and...
Words: 2521 - Pages: 11
...or things to be seized.” The NSA’s surveillance programs violates the Fourth Amendment by collecting telecommunication data and storing it in a database. The US PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the NSA to continue to run these controversial surveillance program today. The United States should end or reform...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...The former director of the US National Security Agency has indicated that surveillance programs have "expanded" under Barack Obama's time in office and said the spy agency has more powers now than when he was in command. Michael Hayden, who served most of his tenure as NSA director under George W Bush, said there was "incredible continuity" between the two presidents. Advertisement Hayden's comments came as the debate around the extent of government surveillance in the US and the UK intensified on Sunday. In Washington, some US senators demanded more transparency from the Obama administration. Libertarian Republican Rand Paul said he wanted to mount a supreme court challenge. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, announced he would make a statement to parliament on Monday after the Guardian revealed that UK intelligence agencies used the US Prism system to generate intelligence reports. Hague said it was "fanciful" and "nonsense" to suggest that the British monitoring service, GCHQ, would work with an agency in another country to circumvent restrictions on surveillance in the UK. Advertisement The issue dominated the Sunday talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic. On CNN, senator Mark Udall, one of the prominent Senate critics of US government surveillance, called for amendments to the Patriot Act, the controversial law brought in after the 9/11 attacks, to rein in the NSA's powers. "I'm calling for reopening the Patriot Act," Udall said. "The fact...
Words: 345 - Pages: 2
...evil NSA team conducting illegal surveillance on a labor lawyer Robert, who was supposed to have a videotape of a politically motivated murder. Robert’s life was peaceful and happy until he suddenly met his college friend Zavitz in a shop, who passed the videotape secretly to him. Ever since that moment, Robert’s life was turned upside down. A special team in NSA soon discovered that he might have the videotape, and then the team raided his house and planted surveillance devices in order to find the videotape. His every movement was tracked and every word was tapped, which destroyed Robert’s life: he was fired from his work, his bank accounts were frozen, his wife threw him out of home since photos about his meeting former girlfriend were sent to his wife. After stumbling around for a bit trying to figure out what's happening to him, Robert turned to Brill for help, who turns out be an ex-NSA agent and who was responsible for inventing some of the surveillance devices. Together, they fought the NSA using the same techniques used against them, and finally Robert got rid of all his accusation and went back to his peaceful life again. Although the plot of the movie might look like a little Hollywood style, the surveillance tools feathered in the movie, such as, phone wiretapping, Global Positioning System, voice and face recognition system, and some much advanced ones, are generally in use today. Apparently, the movie puts strong criticism on the abuse of such surveillance tools...
Words: 1714 - Pages: 7
...ashfaq 16020248 Junaid sirat Comparative law Edward Snowden. Born in North Carolina in 1983, Edward Snowden worked for the National Security Agency through subcontractor Booz Allen in the NSA's Oahu office. While working there, Snowden began noticing government programs involving the NSA spying on American citizens via phone calls and internet use. Before long, leaving his very comfortable life and $200,000 salary behind, in May 2013, Snowden began copying top-secret NSA documents while at work, building a record of practices that he found invasive and alarming. The documents contained enormous and pejorative information on the NSA's domestic surveillance practices, including spying on millions of American citizens under the name of programs such as PRISM. (Edward Snowden biography) Snowden later forwarded these documents to journalists, from where on June 5th Guardian newspaper released those secret documents about an American intelligence body (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) demanding that Verizon release information on a daily basis gathered from its American customers activities. Also the Guardian and the Washington Times released Snowden's leaked information on PRISM, a NSA program that allows real-time information collection, in this case, solely information on American citizens. Snowden now lives in Russia. One of his lawyers, Anatoly Kucherena, gave an interview with CBS News. Kucherena said that Snowden would seek temporary asylum in Russia and possibly...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
...How Has the NSA'S Surveillance Impacted the Economy? Southern New Hampshire University English 123: Composition II How Has the NSA'S Surveillance Impacted the Economy? Introduction The Guardian aired a report on the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency over one year ago. The report based on leaked information from one of the agency’s contractors named Edward Snowden. The national opinions from several interested parties concentrates on simplistic debates evaluating the tradeoff between individual privacy and national security. However, it is an important time for the government and other stakeholders to begin weighing the benefits and costs associated with the surveillance more carefully. In spite of the strong defense by intelligence officials in favor of the NSA programs, the officials fail to table any credible evidence in support of the benefits they suggest. In fact, some initial analysis of the programs indicates that the benefits are dubious. It is true that the United States is a target for terrorist and other malicious groups, state officials often use the threat as an excuse to conduct and promote the activities of the National Security Agency. It may be beneficial in the context of security, but the surveillance programs also jeopardize the activities and operations of other organizations and individuals within the United States. The impact of the activities of the NSA on other parties is a cause for an analysis of the economic effects realized...
Words: 1851 - Pages: 8
...Ethics in the Government and Public Sector in Electronic Surveillance “Can you hear me now, Yes I can even see you” Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Abstract In todays society the number of computers, tablets, mobile devices will rise to about 65 billion devices connecting to the internet. That not counting vehicles, household applicances, gaming devices. However, with all of these deveices there is a significant benfit that will make our lives easier and one potential theat that invades our privacy called Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance (GPS). This sometimes hidden or masked feature is colleting our personal information, location and sometimes converstation. Laws have have enmpowered government and companies to collect databases of consumers without our consent. With ongoing technology where does the protection beging and the surveillance stop. Ethics in the Government and Public Sector in Electronic Surveillance In the movie Enemy of the State the lawyer played by Will Smith becomes a target by a corrupt politican who kills a congressman for his unwillingness to help with a new surveillance system with satellites. The politican with the help of National Security Aministration agents to destroy the lawyers life by manipulation thru the internet and surveillance. This movie was produced in 1998 and then the technological devices we have now were not that advanced. Little did we know that would become the norm of everyday life of those who possess...
Words: 1919 - Pages: 8
...In Glenn Greenwald's article, “The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous” he states, “ There is no surveillance power too intrusive or accountable for our political class provided the word “terrorism” is invoked to “justify” those powers. Mass surveillance and the idea of using fear to justify the implementation of it has been practiced within the government for years. A pattern has occurred in history where the government has turned to surveillance to stay in power and use it to their advantage. Power lies at the heart of surveillance, and lies at the heart of the American government who conserve their power in everything they do. America competes to remain a powerhouse against other countries by expanding its military, and...
Words: 1147 - Pages: 5
...Since the invention of radio, intelligence-gathering organizations have been developing and using eavesdropping techniques to intercept and review wireless communications. Initially, these capabilities were solely used to spy on hostile nations, and particularly for military purposes. Human operators had to manually review each transmission, and cryptanalysts pored over military ciphers in an attempt to decode important messages. As wireless communication has become an integral part of commercial and individual existence, and potential threats to security are increasingly found in peacetime and on home ground, the scope of this intelligence gathering has likewise broadened. One of the most controversial eavesdropping systems in existence is a classified project known as ‘Echelon.’ Its use of computer hardware and software to filter communications from all over the world brings up many ethical issues related to the impact of computers on privacy. Overview of Echelon Most of the evidence for Echelon is circumstantial, though a few facts have been established. The participating organizations (notably the US Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency) have neither confirmed nor denied its existence. In lieu of a discussion of the ethical issues, a brief summary of the current knowledge follows. How it Works Echelon is the product of Cold War efforts to monitor wireless communications in the USSR. It traces its roots back to the clandestine UKUSA...
Words: 5284 - Pages: 22
...argument about whether or not the world in his novel ties in with our own world. Do we have enough privacy or are we constantly under surveillance? The argument on personal privacy is far from a new debate. Some people argue that the government has too much access to what we do, while others say that the government’s intrusion is fine. In our age, the digital age, everything is online and private information is available to the government. The so called “Big Brother”, or, our government and algorithms, is watching over US citizens in illegal and inappropriate ways. Private companies like Facebook or Google have access to what one searches on those sites, but the video “What Google and Facebook Are Hiding” demonstrates how those sites save and...
Words: 740 - Pages: 3
...Before 9/11 occurred, mass surveillance was not as prominent or necessary to ensure the safety of the country. Since 9/11, the government and the NSA have both used surveillance on its citizens so that terrorist attacks or threats to the nation’s security would not happen again. Although this type of surveillance could be beneficial, it is also a privacy concern for not only U.S. citizens, but also for people all around the world. This aspect of the surveillance made U.S. citizens uneasy because of the fact that they felt as if they were being violated. The Patriot Act established for the NSA, the ability to collect this information and spy on innocent people’s lives. This then gave the NSA access to information about people to keep the...
Words: 809 - Pages: 4
...Who is Edward Snowden? Edward Snowden, 30, was a three-month employee of a government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. At Booz Allen (he has since been terminated), he worked as a systems administrator at an NSA Threat Operations Center in Hawaii, one of several facilities detect threats against government computer systems. In other words, he was a low-level intelligence government contractor. Background: Edward Joseph Snowden was born June 21, 1983, he grew up in Wilmington, N.C., but later moved to Ellicott City, Md., he told The Guardian. His mother, Wendy, is the chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology at the federal court in Baltimore, a court official told NBC News. His father, Lonnie, is a former Coast Guard officer who lives in Pennsylvania, the Allentown Morning Call reported. A neighbor said he has an older sister who is an attorney. Education: He did not complete high school. He told The Guardian that he studied computers at a community college and obtained a general equivalency degree. A spokesman for Anne Arundel Community College confirmed that a student with the same name and birth date took classes there, from 1999 to 2001 and again in 2004 and 2005. Military service: He spent four months in the Army reserves, from May to September 2004 as a special forces recruit to a 14-week training course, the Army said. "He did not complete any training or receive any awards," an Army statement said. No other details were given...
Words: 1691 - Pages: 7
