Lstd517 Law Ethics And Cybersecurity Assessment Answers

In NSA-Intercepted Data, Those Not Targeted Far Outnumber the Foreigners Who Are Edward Snowden: NSA Too Busy Spying on Americans to Catch Terrorists.

After reading these articles, reflect on the impact NSA surveillance has on privacy and freedom. Is the loss of privacy worth the price of protection against terrorist attacks? In response to your peers’ posts, comment on the ethical implications of monitoring. Consider that NSA is forwarding data to local law enforcement and asking law enforcement to recreate the investigation as reported in the following article: Exclusive: U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate American.Could individuals lose their right to a due process? Should individuals lose their right to a due process? Does the end justify the means? Considering that the goal of terrorism is to create fear, is losing our rights and privacy a win for terrorism?

Answer:

In 2013, Edward Joseph Snowden, a contractual employee of National Security Agency (NSA), United States has leaked top-secret information of NSA without the agency’s authorization. This information includes millions of private phone calls, photos, emails, internet chats of different kinds gathered from Google, Face book, Microsoft, Yahoo and other internet applications of the foreign nationals and American citizens. It was an online spying from part of the US Government without informing the individuals who are under an eye of NSA. NSA claimed that what they had done was to prevent terrorism though rejected by Snowden himself.  However, an ethical question has arisen. Is there any logic to sacrifice our own freedom and privacy for the security against terrorism (Washingtonpost.com, 2017)?

Snowden stated that, a huge number of account holder’s profile and personal information has been unfolded in front of NSA’s agents regardless of being targeted (Tuccille, 2017).  According to me, it is completely unethical and unnecessary from the part of NSA, as there is no reason to hand over personal information in the name of protection. Every individual should have freedom to limit his/her privacy. In due process, NSA has snatched the right.

Every nation has right to identify its enemy and protect its citizen, but that does not include to monitor over any individual’s account. First, NSA should be sure about the target when it has come for hacking otherwise, it will be an act of terrorism in different form as it creates fear in an individual’s mind to act freely.  

Reference:

Tuccille, J. (2017). Edward Snowden: NSA Too Busy Spying on Americans To Catch Terrorists. Reason.com. Retrieved 14 August 2017, from https://reason.com/blog/2014/03/10/edward-snowden-nsa-too-busy-spying-on-am

Washingtonpost.com. (2017). In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are. Washington Post. Retrieved 17 August 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html?utm_term=.8dbeb6d12aab