Prism Program Pros And Cons

The government immensely overstepped its legal boundary to set up the Prism program in the year 2001. The citizens of the United States were not made aware about the program and the only time any public statement was made about it was by Edward Snowden an ex – CIA system analyst in 2013. So, it was 12 years after that we came to know about the program and the NSA was illegally collecting our personal data. Since the public was not made aware of it, there was an outrage when the citizens of America learned about the program. The Prism program is the violation of the rights of the citizens of the United States under the law. The fourth amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights which state that government organizations are prohibited from carrying …show more content…
This has soured their relationship with political leaders of many countries. According to a credible newspaper, The Guardian, “Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted”. They learned this information from the documents uncovered by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Many foreign officials were infuriated by this information and felt that the United States government has crossed a big line. There have been many exchange of word between the international diplomats over this issue. Many of them have publically shown disgust to this form of treatment by the United States government and wants to take strict action against the NSA. Many foreign minister have cancelled their trip to the United States and refrained from attending conferences to show their anger. The Washington Post, which is one of the highly trusted newspaper in the United States published, “A series of disclosures about U.S. surveillance in Brazil — based on leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — have caused a furor in that country. Earlier this month, Rousseff canceled a state visit to Washington over the revelations.” This shows that the leaders of other countries are enraged by this practice. Edward Snowden in the interview revealed that the NSA has been collecting …show more content…
They think that it is necessary to ensure the security of the nation. They say that the program has indeed worked efficiently and has allowed them to stop major terrorist activities. The New York Times, a credible newspaper published President Obama’s White House speech in which he said, “In sum, the program does not involve the NSA examining the phone records of ordinary Americans. Rather, it consolidates these records into a database that the government can query if it has a specific lead.” The President and majority of the senate is in favor of the Prism programs. Thus the Prism program is still active and continues to collect the data of the citizens. The chief of the NSA stated in his public statements that the NSA has stopped a lot of terrorist activities before they could occur, but the NSA has not been able to back up their claim. On the other hand there have been numerous terrorist activities over the last decade that the NSA has failed to stop. I can appreciate the fact that the government values the security of its citizens and they have a noble motive however their approach is wrong. The government’s logic is that if it is an act to provide more security to the citizens, they should do it but it is completely absurd. The Bill of Rights were made so that the government does not do any illegal activity and since the American government values