The NSA: Is security worth your privacy?

BY SCOTT HARTSELL

ENGLISH 1102
3/12/14

What is the NSA?

NSA stands for National Security Agency. This agency collects mass amounts of
data on U.S. citizens as well as people in other countries, mainly off of smartphones and internet activity. It was kept secret until Edward Snowden, a hacker for the NSA, decided to reveal to the world what they were really doing. (Childress)

According to Jonathan Stray of ProPublica.org, several billion phone calls are

logged daily giving the location of both callers and their identification. Companies, such as Google, also track all of your searches and browsing history and submit your personal information to the NSA.

What is the NSA?

The issue at hand is that the NSA is doing quite a bit of snooping
around in the private lives of billions of people (even world leaders) without their knowledge or consent. They claim that this data collection is never abused and is only used to stop terrorist activity. (Childress)

The current debate is whether or not the NSA goes too far into our
personal lives for the sake of security.

ProPublica (Stray)
ProPublica is a nonprofit website/news reporting team that is
dedicated to journalism in the public interest.

The article was written by Jonathan Stray, a writer for ProPublica, and
heavily details what information the NSA is collecting and how they are collecting it.

It also explains how what the NSA is doing is legal in the U.S.

ProPublica (Stray)

The audience of this source is just the general public, since it is a news site that reports for the public.

It was extremely well written and had loads of references to the claims he made, and was published last summer.
It relates to my inquiry project because it gives specific facts and information that help represent the scale of the data collection of the NSA and explains the legality of the whole situation.

PBS (Childress)
This article was written by Sarah Childress for Frontline, an
educational news service by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

It highlights the White Houses response to Edward Snowden

revealing the NSAs activities and how President Obama defended its practices.

It also talks about the court/board that was supposed to oversee the
NSAs actions.

PBS (Childress)
This is a reliable source because it is publicly funded and regulated.
There are also several links to confirm the information claimed. It was written very professionally around 6 months ago.

It relates to my inquiry project because it shows the side that is

defending the NSA while most sources attack the agency and its agenda.

Questions Raised

What other documents were unclassified that revealed more data collection? What other companies are cooperating with the NSAs data collection?

Why is the NSA collecting mass amounts of information on everyone and not just on specific individuals?
How many terrorists have actually been stopped by this data collection?

Works Cited

Childress, Sarah. "Just the Facts: How Good Are the Checks on NSA Surveillance?." PBS. PBS, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/just-thefacts-how-good-are-the-checks-on-nsa-surveillance/>. Stray, Jonathan. "FAQ: What You Need To Know About the NSAs Surveillance Programs." ProPublica. N.p., 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-data-collection-faq>.