Edward Snowden
By Andrew Kling
What is the NSA?
- NSA stands for National Security Agency
- The main goal of the agency is to spy on foreign countries, groups, and individuals to help protect the United States.
- After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NSA began to use warrentless surveillance to help protect the United States from further damage. Many believed it was unconstitutional but George W. Bush stated it was needed for national security.
Edward Snowden the Whistleblower
- Was a former NSA employee. He worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor. He took lower wages in order to gather the information about the NSA and to leak it to the World.
- Snowden left for Hong Kong and spoke to The Guardian their spilling all the information about he had. He also spilled information to filmmaker Laura Poitras.
Not So Secret
- The main thing released in the documents was that the NSA's operation was deeper than expected. They were collecting data from many people that didn't even have foreign contacts.
- Verizon was required to turn over metadata to the NSA. This gave them information about the call location, who they called and length. Their is speculation that other mobile companies were required to turn this information over also.
- Part of the leak revealed PRISM, which required companies to let the NSA into their servers to collect personal information. Some of the companies include tech giants Apple, Google, and Facebook.
- Other information showed the United States spying on foreign embassies and mobile calls in foreign countries.
- Many believe that the NSA went beyond constitutional boundaries including citizens and foreign countries.
Whistleblower
- After Snowden left Hong Kong, he headed to Russia.
- From Russia he was supposed to go to one of four countries that promised to give him asylum.
- Their was no direct flights to any of those countries though. He would have had to take a connecting flight and he feared he would be in danger.
- Russia decided to grant him asylum their. He now lives their with his girlfriend.
- Some congressmen believe that he should be put into jail for treason, giving their secret away to the world. Others believe that he is a hero for showing America the real secrets behind the United States and what is going on in everyone phones.
- In an interview, Snowden said he believed the United States wanted to keep him in Russia so the could consider him a Russian spy.
Changing TIdes
In the aftermath of Snowden releasing all this information to the world, reform has come not only to the NSA but also to other companies.
- The House passed a bill to stop the NSA's collection of metadata. The American people were furious with the NSA's collection of metadata believing it is a violation of their rights. The bill was passed to ease the minds of American's though for all we know they still could be collecting it. Even though this passed, the Senate didn't pass it, with it now burning in the flames.
- Their still has been no major reforms to the agency. Obama promised reforms would be coming to it but nothing major has come yet. The major reform bill dies.
- With no reform to the NSA, companies have reformed their privacy policies. Some of the tech giants including Google have increased encryption of users information as in whole they were starting to lose a lot of money. With the PRISM scandal, this was a must for the companies to try and keep their profits as a good level.
- U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon issued a ruling on the NSA calling it unconstitutional. With this said, the NSA might be heading to the Supreme Court to rule on its constitutionality.
Work Cited
Sledge, Matt. "The Snowden Effect: 8 Things That Happened Only Because Of The NSA Leaks." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 June 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
"What Happened to Reform of the NSA?" What Happened to Reform of the NSA? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.
Watts, Tim J. "National Security Agency and government secrecy." Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society.ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.