Editorial
5
Cyber Security:
Investigation or Privacy Invasion? Invasion
Much controversy has stirred up due to the recent activities and news of the National Security Agency, or simply, the NSA. The NSA is an agency under the Department of Defense that attempts to protect the United States citizens from cyber and terrorist attacks. This is achieved through numerous cases of bugging electronic software and hardware. The government has been allowed clearance to enable this bugging on devices through legislative acts. The bugging varies from websites to cellphones, and electronic history is filed away for future reference. By allowing this agency to conduct this surveillance, the government is depriving its citizens of their constitutional right to privacy.
The NSA is able to track whatever citizens are doing on technological devices, online and offline which threatens each citizen right to privacy. In the United States Constitution, the fourth amendment states:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized “
While the Constitution does not directly state there to be security against technological searches, it should be understood that as times change, much of the people's lives are dependent and based around technology and in turn should be protected under this amendment as well.
Furthermore, it is morally unjust that such a large portion of the NSA's activity is done in secrecy. An abundance of companies have integrated bugging in their hardware and software. Google is a large perpetrator of this and according to the Washington Post as they keep a profile of each of its users searching history and habits.
Those who are pro-NSA argue that they do not do anything unlawful, so why should the government tracking affect them? This mentality does not encapsulate the whole situation as the NSA's cause is ill-principled. The fact that government can track all the activity of its citizens through espionage without acknowledging their motives, is just the beginning of possible corruption and tyranny in our nation. By spying on its citizens the government goes against the constitution and this can lead to the government manipulating the constitution's interpretation even more in order to do whatever they choose, and in doing so, such a nation would go against the founding fathers' plan for a perfect nation.
-EUGENE C.