NSA Surveillance

Dhruv Khurana

Isnt it ironic that a country that professes the highest democratic

principles, guarantees some fundamental rights for its citizens under its
constitution and generally considered a role model for its democratic ideals
& institutions, is now probably one of the most serious offenders of its
citizens fundamental right to privacy.

The U.S. Governments pathetic invasion into the privates lives of its
citizens recently came under the scanner in early June 2013,

when former NSA

Contractor - Edward Snowden revealed heavily classified documents exposing

the NSAs Metadata Collection Program to the public. After this event,
millions of Americans learnt that the NSA had been collecting large amounts
of metadata (messages, phone calls) from their phones and emails through
large corporations such as Google and Verizon. Not only was the information
collected, it has also been proven that the NSA has shared this information
with other intelligence agencies across the globe.

Since then a debate has raged within the U.S. where some believe that
the actions of the NSA are unjustified and unconstitutional whereas there are
others who believe differently. I believe that the actions of the NSA are
unjustified because it violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.

The Fourth Amendment protects all Americans from excessive search and
seizure by the government. While U.S. citizens enjoy this right it has to be

balanced by legitimate government interests such as of national security or

public safety. In other words, if the government suspects someone to be a
threat to national security, it can definitely surveill, search and seize.
However, the NSA program fails this test since private details of all U.S.
Citizens were being collected. Certainly not all U.S. citizens were being
considered a threat to national security!!! This violation of the Fourth
Amendment was aptly captured by Federal Judge Richard J. Leon in his rather
harsh judgment as follows "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. Surely, such a
program infringes on that degree of privacy that the Founders enshrined in
the Fourth Amendment (Dinan 1).

Many experts also opine that such surveillance is even more intrusive
than most of us believe. According to the Susan Landau, (Sun Microsystems
Engineer and Author of Surveillance or Security) agencies like the NSA can
learn massive amounts of information by just studying, who you call, and who
they call. If you can track that, you know exactly what is happeningyou
dont need the content (Mayer 1). For example, in the corporate world, a
pattern of phone calls between 2 large corporates can reveal an impending
takeover (Mayer 1).

Also, under the NSAs metadata collection program, the personal

information concerning each citizen is compiled in a database and retained
for 5 years. This can be very extremely risky especially in light of
increased instances of hacking into sites belonging to major U.S. banks and

corporates. As an example, around Thanksgiving 2013, an unknown hacker

installed a virus on Targets Security and Payments System thereby allowing
him to gain access to the credit cards of anyone who shopped at Targets
1,797 stores (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence and Matlack 1). A similar instance of
hacking at the NSAs metadata collection program database can be compromise
the personal information of every citizen of U.S.A. and can be devastating in
its effects.

However, although, the program does violate the Fourth Amendment, it

did have some positive and beneficial impacts. Due to the surveillance
carried under this program, the U.S. Government was able to thwart attempts
of the terrorists to spread terror within & outside the country. President
Obama in a visit to Berlin, Germany said We know of at least 50 threats that
have been averted because of this information not just in the United States,
but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved
(Bergen 1).

Despite such positives, the program does remain a highly arbitrary

invasion into the private lives of all American citizens and therefore a
clear violation of Fourth Amendment. It has the potential to snowball into
Government controlling many other aspects of our personal lives. In order to
prevent further damage, the Government must consider ways to make the program
more transparent such as obtaining Senate approval or scaling it down to
target only those people who are suspected of being threat to national
security. Else, the program may soon become not only a permanent blot on the
democratic ideals of our great nation.

Bibliography
Dinan, Stephen. "Federal Judge Says NSA Phone Program Violates Fourth Amendment."
Washington Times. The Washington Times, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
Riley, Michael, Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence, and Carol Matlack. "Missed Alarms and 40 Million
Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It."Bloomberg Business Week.
Bloomberg, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
Mayer, Jane. "Whats the Matter with Metadata?" What's the Matter With Metadata? The New
Yorker, 6 June 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
Bergen, Peter, David Sterman, Emily Schneider, and Bailey Cahall. "Do NSA's Bulk
Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists? | New America Archives."Do NSA's Bulk
Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists? | New America Archives. New America
Foundation, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.