Jacques 1 Angelica Jacques John Kubler English 114A 3 September 2013 Is the Act of the Government Reading your

Texts Really that Bad? Americans today tend to believe that their cellphone calls, text messages, emails, internet history, and credit card transactions are completely confidential. But this is not true in todays society. Ever since 9/11, security has been at an all time high to protect the citizens of America. In trying to secure this Nation, the Government has decided to closely watch Americans calling, emailing, searching the web and texting habits. With that being said, "People want the homeland kept safe and the government feels this is the best way to do just that. Yet some may challenge the view that Americans Wallow in the idea that they are being watched, [and] their civil liberties [are then] endangered (Mukasey, Leaking Secrets Empowers Terrorists). Lets say that someone is calling Iraq multiple times a week and they talk on the phone for about an hour and a half at a time or lets say someone is constantly looking up how to make bombs. This will alert the system and then the Government will go in and do some extra investigating. All of this extra security is to protect the larger group needs because we have to make sure the Nation is safe as a whole. We have seen in past attacks that our own citizens may turn on us, so we need to be ready for anything and in doing this, keeping watch on citizens technological devices is the best way to do so. In the discussion of the right to individual privacy, one controversial issue has been that citizens have constitutional rights and that citizens deserve the right to their privacy. There are multiple protest that go on in Washington D.C. each year that try to put an end to NSA spying because they believe that the government should Be our friend and not [be] treating us like criminals when we're not (Mohamed, Anger Swells after NSA Phone Records Court Order Revela-

Jacques 2 tions). But on the other hand, the surveillance that the government is doing is to protect everyone from potential harm! This is an intense debate that will continue for years to come. But in my opinion, as long as you have nothing to hide, then there is nothing to worry about. So, the question now is: How far should the Government go to protect the people? All over the world, Governments have troubles determining how to govern their people, especially in this day in age when there are constant terrorist threats. The Governments job is to protect its citizens to the best of their ability. In the book Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, the author talks about her life as a kid, growing up in Iran during the 1980s. During this time, the Government was corrupted so there were spies spying in order to make sure that there werent any attacks coming from Iraq and that everyone was obeying the new Western cultural way of life. The book Persepolis has many examples of how the Government used their spies in hopes of protecting their people. For example, both of Marjis parents protested against the Shah and one day, Marjis mother was at a demonstration to protest against the Cultural Revolution. Little did she know, she was caught on camera looking very heated. Her picture was then published in European newspapers as well as the Iranian newspaper! Because of this, she had to dye her hair and wear dark glasses to avoid prosecution by the revolutionaries. She had to disguise herself because she was scared that she would get caught! Another example from the book would be when the movie theatre gets burned down because of the Shahs. This happened because there were anti-government praisers inside. One may ask how did the Shahs know? Well, again they must have had spies inside and alerting the outside forces of what was going on. I think that it is sad that in Iran the spies were bad and killing people. I am glad I live in America where the surveillance is placed on us for the good.

Jacques 3 As I stated earlier, the United States Government decided that the best way to govern their citizens was through surveillance of their technological devices. The NSA demonstrates that they do not snoop through ones personal accounts but they do indeed receive a record of the location and further information regarding the suspicious activity which is referred to as data collection. If investigators want, they can gain access through metadata which [tells] them who is communicating through what medium, and when, and where they are located(Gorman, Perez, and Hook, U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove). When it comes to the topic of the U.S. collecting data some Americans say it is lawful and a good idea, but of course there will always be people who disagree. For example, Senator Ron Wyden states that when law-abiding citizens call their friends, who they call, when they call, and where they call from is private information... in collecting this data... [it] would be a massive invasion of Americans privacy(Gorman, Perez, and Hook, U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove). Whereas John Earnest rebuts that this is a critical tool in protecting the nation from terror threats(Gorman, Perez, and Hook, U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove). The 550 word section of the Patriot Act is where the idea of spying seems to come from. Jeffery Rosen states that the government can now seize any tangible thing... anyones records can be sought... the only limitation is that the secret warrant has to be relevant to a national security investigation.(Chokshi, NSA Spying Appears to Stem From 550-Word Section of PATRIOT Act). This is stating that the Government has the right to look through your things if they feel it

is necessary. I believe that this is a good way to protect Americans, but Senator Wyden as well as other senators believe that this technique will be ineffective. They think that this technique violates the Fourth Amendment by allowing to government to conduct searches without warrants or probable cause(Chokshi, NSA Spying Appears to Stem From 550-Word Section of PATRIOT Act). I disagree with that statement because the Government does have probable cause in that

Jacques 4 they caught you interacting with a foreigner so to protect the greater good of this country they feel as if they need to further investigate. When 9/11 took place the President at the time was George Bush and soon after the attack, he came out with a national security strategy. In the document he talks about how we had to transform our intelligence capabilities and build new ones to keep pace with the nature of the threats (Bush, President George W. Bushs Address to Congress and the Nation on Terrorism). The main theme and topic he kept going back to was intelligence. He states that Intelligence is our first line of defense..(Bush, President George W. Bushs Address to Congress and the Nation on Terrorism). With that being said, the Government keeping surveillance of us is one way of staying educated. Following upon all of these ideas, I would like to conclude that there will never be a right answer to solve this problem. What we need to find is the right balance between personal privacy and security of the whole group. We can mostly all agree that we will give up some privacy in order to not be blown up. But the government shouldn't over reach into our privacy to protect us. I personally wouldnt mind if the government knew I face-timed my friend that is three years old, or I have Facebook friends that live in France because that is not bad. If I had a daughter who was blown up in a mall shooting that was due to a terrorist attack, I would be devastated. However, if the government was keeping an eye on the potential terrorist attacks, then the death of my daughter could have possibly been prevented. This should then lead one to thinking that if their electronics are being monitored is really that important.

Works Cited Bush, George W. President George W. Bushs Address to Congress and the Nation on Terrorism. Whitehouse.gov. The White House Online, 20 Sept. 2001. Web. 23 September 2013.

Jacques 5 Chokshi, Niraj. NSA Spying Appears to Stem From 550-Word Section of Patriot Act. NationalJournal.com. The National Journal Group, 7 Jun. 2013. Web. 23 September 2013. Gorman, Siobhan, Evan Perez, and Janet Hook. U.S. Collects Vast Data Trove. Online.wsj.com. The Wall Street Journal, US Edition, 7 Jun. 2013. Web. 23 September 2013. Mohamed, Farah. "NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 November2013. MuKasey, Michael B. Leaking Secrets Empowers Terrorists. Online.wsj.com. The Wall Street Journal, US Edition, 10 Jun. 2013. Web. 24 November 2013. Roberts, Dan. "Anger Swells after NSA Phone Records Court Order Revelations." The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 November 2013. Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print.