Saikumar Dass Malcolm Campbell Honors English 1103 31 October 2013 The NSAs Surveillance Programs Do you every

have the feeling you are being watched? Do you have the feeling you are being followed (Twitter doesnt count)? This is because you are being watched, every cellphone call, text, email and all you information on social media is monitored and stored by the US government. Anytime you use your cellphone or laptop the government is constantly being fed everything you do. This information was recently released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. He released tons of classified information, but most of it was nothing that would compromise people in other countries. The information he released was the most damaging to the government of the United States, but it affected people all around the world. Edward Snowden is a 29 year old who was a computer analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA) working in Hawaii on top secret government information. He was initially a security guard for the NSA, then eventually moved to the information technology sector of the NSA. The information technology field was where he analyzed all the data he had coming in and the place where he was able to copy all the information from the government. He later leaked the information to The Guardian (a British newspaper) in May of 2013 which caused a shockwave throughout the world. It had sensitive information about the surveillance programs in the USA and the United Kingdom and how they were doing all this surveillance. This study will be focusing on to what extent the NSAs surveillance programs is affecting people and its constitutionality/legality. There are a multitude of programs the NSA uses to monitor communications including PRISM, MARINA, NUCLEON, and MAINWAY are
Commented [t6]: Dont need Commented [t5]: Try to make this flow better. I understand it, it just sounds a bit disjointed. Commented [t4]: Just say he was a 29 year old computer analyst. No need for the who was a Commented [t3]: Constantly feeding you; information is being constantly fed Commented [t1]: I understand what youre trying to say, but it takes away from the severity of your topic and blunts how important it is with this light hearted addition. If I were you itd be easier to leave it out. Commented [t2]: Your*

just a few. PRISM is the program the government uses to monitor all people connected to technology in any way around the US and in foreign countries. But the other programs The documents leaked by Edward Snowden also included a similar program of surveillance in the United Kingdom called Tempora, but PRISM is of more relevance to the American people. According to the documents released by The Guardian, PRISM monitors all cellphone calls, text messages, emails, internet searches, search locations, files stored on the cloud, and goes through all of the information to analyze it. Even after the information was leaked, the government denied that any sort of program existed for a short period of time. Some of the companies involved in the PRISM program, such as Google and Facebook, also denied giving private/secure information to the government. Eventually both the government and the internet companies did acknowledge the existence of the program and said it was a vital part of the NSA to crack down on terrorists and foreign threats to the United States. The director of the NSA, Keith Alexander, said that 50 plus terrorist plots have been stopped as a direct result of the surveillance program, but we have yet to hear about them. The tragic Boston Bombings that took place earlier this year during the Boston Marathon, was not able to be stopped before, and they only found the suspects because of the help of the citizens. A few years ago the Times Square bomb attempt was foiled only because of the help of the citizens yet again. Two street vendors thought the car was parked suspiciously and smelled smoke coming from it. There was a major plot that was foiled but no thanks to the surveillance program. This information was gathered from The Verge, an online technology news source. According to The Verge, an online technology news source, the data that PRISM collects is classified into two different groups: metadata and content. Metadata is the information generated from the use of technology, as stated in The Guardian. For example, if you were to
Commented [t8]: Dont need; you already mentioned what it is. Commented [t7]: Confusing

send an email, it would have the exact date, time, and location of the email, the sender and receiver of the email, and even the subject. Sometimes it can go as far as seeing if the email has been opened or not yet. In regard to cellphones, metadata records phones numbers, call durations, and locations of all your calls. When using an internet browser PRISM collects all web searches, cache, cookies, and even information about the computer you were using while browsing the website. The program leaves no stone unturned and even takes metadata from social media like Facebook and Twitter. From the social media websites, PRISM knows locations, all personal data you post (or tweet), people you interact with the most, times, dates, and even apps you sync social media with. In a nutshell, metadata collected by PRISM knows everything about you and when and where you use technology. Content is the other type of data that The Verge reported that PRISM collects. This is more specific and is exactly what people say in conversations and messages. So if two people were talking over a cellphone, PRISM could collect exactly what they say in the conversation along with all the other information previously stated. On emails, the subjects of the email and what is stated in the message are also collected by the NSA. This is basically like bugging a line, but on a much wider scale. The servers for all this are located on a secure military base in Utah where it stores all the data collected from calls, messages, emails, etc. Based on the information from The Verge, the government has access to all this information through companies like Google, Facebook, cellphone companies (At&T, Verizon, Sprint,), Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple. The NSA has back door access to all these companies servers to access all the information at any time. They already had access to phone records from cellphone companies through the Patriot Act-2001, but to get internet information they have to go through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Commented [t9]: And Apple

(FISC), a group of judges that oversee and regulate what information the government can use as intelligence through issued warrants. FISC either approves or disproves of warrants submitted by the government, more specifically the NSA, as of today, they have not rejected a single warrant. This was all approved by Congress through a plethora of different acts and amendments. This includes The Patriot Act, amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Protect America Act of 2007 (The Atlantic). I know widespread surveillance has been made popular through recent pop culture like the movies The Dark Knight and Skyfall and the TV show Person of Interest. But we didnt feel the impact it has on everyones daily life until Edward Snowden leaked the information to the public. Every step you take on the internet is monitored and stored by the federal government on their servers. They have claimed it is only to monitor foreigners in America and abroad, but there is only so much we know is true and dont know how much transparency there is from our government.
Commented [t11]: Should be 7 pages. Commented [t12]: Good Ending, really sums everything up. Commented [t10]: No no word. Malcolm doesnt like this word, try multitude or