National Security Agency Pros And Cons

The issue of the NSA (National Security Agency) spying on U.S. citizen’s personal data is important because of many reasons. The first and foremost reason lies in the U.S. citizens right to privacy and protection against illegal search and seizure as in accordance to the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Now, the NSA had used the Patriot Act to justify their actions because it is in the interest of national security. The liberty to have one's’ information protected from the government is important because humans can use information to exploit one another and negatively impact their lives. There have been many court cases over this topic. In this essay, I will address at least two stances on the issue: The NSA’s official standpoint, and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) standpoint on the

Both of these organizations have opposing viewpoints to the extreme levels. The ACLU has supported the perspective that the Patriot Act is against the civil liberties of all U.S. citizens for many reasons, but one of their main arguments is that a warrant is needed in order to search through personal information/data. The ACLU also supports the perspective that in order to detain someone on suspicious activity, a due process of law is required. The NSA counters those arguments by supporting the side of national security interests and that the Patriot Act allows for them to make discretionary interpretations of certain parts of the law. In order to follow the events of this case, one must study the court cases about the legality of the law in order to draw the conclusion of whether or not the NSA’s actions are justified based on the foundation of their