NSA Collecting More Data Than Ever

The National Security Agency (NSA) has been engaged in spying on millions of Americans for years now, in the interest of national security.

Their phone calls, social media activity, browsing history, e-mails, and other communications, have been swept-up in an unprecedented phishing expedition. Critics have been saying for many years now that this spying apparatus violates the civil liberties and Constitutional rights of those who it supposedly is aimed to protect. That it also undermines internet security; among other concerns.

In recent years, there has been growing criticism for the spying actions that state agents have been involved in, and many have protested against the ongoing spying agenda that is aimed at millions of unsuspecting Americans.

A number of companies have been in the media for their failure or willingness to hand over sensitive user information to the NSA, to comply with their surveillance objectives. The chief legal officer from Google, David Drummond, at one point had previously commented that they were outraged over the actions that the state has taken in the past to try and intercept data on users.

Various political figures and other critics of the unprecedented spying agenda, have been working hard to push for reform when it comes to the spying. And they've been working on that for several years now, with legislation like the USA Freedom Act which was supposedly aimed at trying to curb the vast surveillance web that's been established.

The NSA has allegedly admitted in the past that they're guilty of violating certain restraints and various surveillance limits that have been placed on them, but those violations were said to be unintentional. Many might be surprised to find out that they are still spying to the extent at which they are currently.

In 2016, it's estimated that the NSA collected over 150+ million phone records of US citizens and last year alone, they harvested over 530+ million phone calls and text messages.

After the various revelations came to light about the spying that was taking place, and the lies about it that were being told to the public, no doubt there were many who thought that perhaps eventually there might be a restraint placed on that sort of behavior.

But if millions of Americans are still having their information harvested then it doesn't look like that is the case.

530 million records is a lot of data, considering that for 2017 the surveillance court had only allegedly granted approval for the wiretapping about 1,337 people. If millions of Americans are still having their information harvested, despite authorities not having the traditionally appropriate warrant to authorize them to do so, then it seems to still violate their basic natural rights that are supposed to be protected via the Constitution. Does the supposed threat really justify this extensive spying that has been going on for years, sweeping up the data of millions of people? I don't think so. The spying erodes liberty for those who are having their information harvested and chipping away at the liberty of Americans isn't going to make them safe.

Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/the-nsa-isnt-just-spying-on-us-its-also-undermining-internet-security/457038/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-google/nsa-intercepts-google-yahoo-traffic-overseas-report-idUSBRE99T18S20131030
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/the-last-defenders-for-the-phone-dragnet/393581/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-google/nsa-intercepts-google-yahoo-traffic-overseas-report-idUSBRE99T18S20131030
https://steemit.com/news/@doitvoluntarily/nsa-still-engaging-in-bulk-data-collection-despite-legal-efforts-to-curb-mass-surveillance
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/01/nsas-google-worlds-private-communications/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/us/politics/nsa-surveillance-2017-annual-report.html
http://fortune.com/2017/06/09/nsa-backtracks-warrantless-spying/