What Can People Do to Address this Issue?

The NSA mass surveillance program sparked great controversy throughout the past few years and has many people wondering what the correct plan is to solve this issue. After coming to the conclusion that “the NSA should be prohibited from obtaining unlimited surveillance because infringing on people’s privacy rights is unconstitutional, fails to stop a significant number of terrorist attacks, and leads to overbearing governmental power,” we created a thought-out course of action that could create a positive change.

Citizens’ trust in the government is essential for the government and the people to work in coalition. With their privacy rights being ignored in the NSA’s tracking programs, people have begun to lose trust. There are ways to fix this dilemma, however. One way to solve the issue is by funding and advocating for the organizations who support the preservation of privacy rights such as The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation. Both of which support a redrafting of the Patriot Act as well as taking the NSA to court for their violations of the 1st and 4th amendments of the Constitution. “The government's surveillance programs are in need of serious reform,” so organizations like these who value securing the protection of people’s individual rights are important to make known (WC #2).

Another way to create change in our society is by educating our fellow Americans about the severity of NSA wiretapping on the people. As shown by our survey of Wilton High School, the majority of the students surveyed deem NSA mass surveillance unconstitutional (Yes: 31, No: 9) and believe that citizens have the power to persuade a change in the illegal programs of the NSA (Yes: 29, No: 11). Unfortunately, though, not enough people are educated on the topic as 58% of people we surveyed were not well informed on the conflict with the NSA surveillance program. In addition to this, not enough of the opponents to mass surveillance actually take action against the government. If we can show Americans just how much personal data the government can search and inform them about the multiple violations of the government, they will definitely take the issue more seriously and potentially inspire more people to put an end to NSA surveillance with real action.

Let’s face it. Surveillance organizations such as the NSA have completely ignored the laws put in place for all Americans to follow. By continuing their mass surveillance of so many innocent people, our country is stepping dangerously closer to a totalitarian state. It is time for everybody to step up for the privacy and freedom that we and any other human being deserves. We need as many people on our side to persuade the government to end mass surveillance of its people. NSA whistleblower gave a grim prediction of the future, stating,"A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that's a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be” (WC #5). Is this really what we want for ourselves and the future generations? Join the cause to stop the NSA. Together, we can move our country back in the right direction.

(2): "Congressional Wiretapping Policy Overdue." JSTOR. JSTOR, n.d. Web.

<http://www.jstor.org/stable/1226118?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.

(5): Edward Moyer January 23, 2014 3:17 PM PST. "Snowden: 'Not All Spying Bad' but NSA Program

'divorced from Reason'." CNET. N.p., 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2017. <https://www.cnet.com/news/snowden-not-all-spying-bad-but-nsa-program-divorced-from-reason/>.