NSA is a government agency that collects information from technology users.
With the increase of technological use, privacy in the digital age has become a growing concern for users. For those who don't know, the NSA (National Security Agency) is a government agency that spies on what people are posting on social media sites, phone call records, internet traffic etc.
Phone companies are required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to give information on telephone calls upon request and on a daily basis regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing. This information includes location data, time of the call, call duration, and unique identifiers.They can also check data from internet traffic. With XKEYSCORE software the NSA can see basically everything one does on the internet. From email to social media posts, to website visited the XKEYSCORE software helps the NSA easily track what internet users are doing without reason.
There has always been controversy over whether this is an invasion of privacy and that they do more potential harm than good. However, since so many people are using technology in today's world the debate on whether there should be restraints on the NSA's power is bigger than ever. I believe new standards need to be set in order to protect the privacy of media users because including the upcoming example, time and time again the NSA has been caught exploiting their power.
NSA breaks into communication links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers.
This past week the NSA was caught in a huge scandal when former employee Edward Snowden revealed that they have secretly broken into links that connect Yahoo and Google data. This means that they have access to information from hundreds of millions of user accounts from all over the globe. They can see who sent and received emails as well as the text, audio, or video that are in those emails. The fact that this was done secretly and to the whole world is shady. If this was done solely to a specific criminal in pursuit then it would be justifiable but it wasn't.
Tech Leaders want restraints on NSA's power and White House agrees
After this huge news that the NSA is secretly infiltrating into Yahoo and Google, the six leading technology companies have demanded for restraints on the NSA's power. Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL have sent a letter to Congress conveying their disapproval of NSA's growing power. They want to take action in preventing the NSA from exploiting their powers. Some ideas brought up by these technology companies are to stop the NSA from collecting phone records of millions of Americans. They also want privacy protection programs to be enhanced and a special court to oversee the NSA, ensuring that they are not exploiting their power.
After this huge news that the NSA is secretly infiltrating into Yahoo and Google, the six leading technology companies have demanded for restraints on the NSA's power. Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL have sent a letter to Congress conveying their disapproval of NSA's growing power. They want to take action in preventing the NSA from exploiting their powers. Some ideas brought up by these technology companies are to stop the NSA from collecting phone records of millions of Americans. They also want privacy protection programs to be enhanced and a special court to oversee the NSA, ensuring that they are not exploiting their power.
The White House indicated in a report Tuesday that it would support congressional efforts to limit some surveillance practices by the NSA. They believe that it is necessary in order for Americans to be comfortable doing whatever they want when using technology.
Conclusion
For all the reasons stated above it is clear that there should be standards set to restrain the NSA's power. The NSA should be allowed to spy and wiretap criminals but have no justifiable reason for spying on innocent people across the globe. It is an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional. In fact the NSA has been caught at least once violating the Constitution on unlawful search and seizure. So what can be done to stop it? I believe that the major technology leaders going to Congress directly and demanding a change is the best way to do it so I'm happy it's being done. They've recently taken a step to increasing privacy for media users and we'll see if it can lead to a big change in how our government surveils us.
After reading Brandon's post, I instantly connected it to the recent readings about ethics in the media. The post discusses the decreasing amount of privacy present on the internet, specifically the lack of control over government enforced hacks of Google and Yahoo's data centers. The title of the post does introduce the topic of the post, however, it is missing clarity. It is unclear whether a law or the agency itself may be reformed. Perhaps rewording the title or making it a complete sentence may help clear up any confusion that might arise from reading it.
ReplyDeleteThe post is organized into many subsections which makes it easy to follow. The subsections also start out with an introduction to some of the measures taken by the government to control privacy over different types of media, and progressively gets more in depth on the recent NSA scandal and how the rest of the government has decided to take action against the invasion of privacy. The structure is well thought out, which makes it easy to follow the story.
Though the post can be easily understood, there are many grammatical errors as well as problems with clarity and redundancy. Many of the subheadings do not flow smoothly into their subsections. The subsections repeat what was already said in the subheading making it redundant and tedious to read. The subheadings also seem to be more like titles of separate posts within the same post, rather than smaller sections of a large post.
Altogether, this post contained good information and was structured in such a way that was meant to be followed easily. In future posts, I would suggest proof reading to make sure that the post is clear and that the points made flow well and are concise without being vague or repetitive.
Brandon starts his post off with a good title that lets the reader know that there was a privacy scandal involving the NSA and companies like Google and yahoo and that some sort of reform is to come. He follows up with more descriptive subtitles; one about the function of the NSA, another about the scandal, and the next about possible changes and reactions to the scandal. Overall he had a good clean format, weaving his content around the two medias he used in the post. All of his content is backed by good sources which are in links throughout the post
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I didn’t like about the subtitles was it was hard to read (at least for me) the blue on the black. For the future id say use simpler colors. I thought the video was somewhat humorous and very helpful to understanding Xkeyscore software but the video was a little long and might discourage all readers from watching the full thing. So I’d either find a shorter video or tell the reader to skip to a certain point. Otherwise the only other thing that was wrong with the post is a few grammatical errors.
Overall, it was a well-done post that was easy to understand with interesting information to share.