After National Security Agency was caught with its hand in a cookie jar by the revelation of NSA intelligence analyst Edward Snowden that the agency illegally peeped into millions of emails and phones calls of American citizens. For letting the cat out the US administration did not take it lying down and retaliated by framing espionage charges against him, and the faithful whistle blower citizen of US has to sort asylum in foreign countries.
If the security agencies are infringing the constitutional rights of the citizens, it is not a concern for them. Americans have been living in false notions of privacy, and had placed false faith in guardians of the constitution. Soon after the 9/11 attacks President Bush gave his assent for intrusion into the personal internet data of its citizens, and conveniently backdoor tactics were deployed, secret courts passed their rulings, and NSA went to work.
When President Obama came to power he carried on where his predecessor left, and with more vigor to beat Mr. Bush over it. It is alleged that between April 25 and July 19 FBI was given loose reign to fiddle with millions American citizens’ mails, the names were randomly picked and there were no parameters set to ensure the innocent citizens’ privacy was not breached.
Recently the confirmation came from US security chiefs that NSA did breach the fourth amendment of the constitution, which prohibited unreasonable search. The agency tried to identify and gather information on foreign communicators to assess whether they could be a potential threat to the country.
They caught hold of Microsoft first then roped in Yahoo, and likewise rest of the pack followed the demands of security agency. These service providers were asked to handover the data of their users, the NSA scrolled through the emails, voice mails, chats, videos, and other social details. The program did not come cheap, as it cost the taxpayers around $20 million annually for allowing NSA intrude into their privacy.
What were the useful effects of burning green Benjamin's? It doesn’t seem they have landed anyone on the Moon. They had become the reason for scowl for the enraged Americans upon infringement of their rights, if they had anything to justify their act they would have loved to let the world know about it.
If you have any sensitive documents or your romantic poetry only for your beloved’s eyes and you don’t want anyone to breach your security and privacy, send it through the US postal service. They are not going to open it, unless of course Anthrax strikes back. But then scrolling electronic mails is simpler than thumbing through paper mails.
Then there is constant threat of hackers and data phishing over the internet, your business sensitive data if it falls in malicious hands it could pose a potential threat to you financially. Many businesses have already placed their faith in postal mail services for reasons of security, hence as far security goes, the round belongs to the USPS over emails.
