Monica Ciruelos

Op Ed Piece
April 2015

SSU Students Indifferent About Their Own Privacy

A month after the September 11th attacks Congress receives the Patriot Act. John
Ashcroft, the Attorney General at the time, tells Congress they should pass the bill
immediately, according to fight215.orgs campaign video. Fight 215 is an organization
created to inform the American people of The Patriot Acts Section 215 upcoming
reinstatement and its unconstitutionality.
The bill was designed after one of the nations largest terrorist attacks, in order to
restore a sense of safety within the United States. Section 215 outlines the protocols the
NSA can utilize when running surveillance on Americans.
This upcoming decision to either reauthorize or curtail Section 215 has sparked a
large conversation among Americans about domestic and foreign surveillance.
According to the NSA, a business must hand over any tangible things so long as it is for
an investigation to protect against international terrorism. They also run dragnet
surveillance on American citizens. This means the NSA may police any American
citizens phone call conversations, store phone numbers and duration of calls. Obama
has formally stated that the NSA does not specifically store names or content.
Students around campus were asked what they thought about Section 215 and
whether or not they were opposed or supportive of the NSAs current policies. Many
students were unfamiliar with The Patriot Act while others just assumed we were always
being watched by our government. Scott Mahon said, No I dont want the government
snooping on me, I just expect them to. Is America meant to be the country that lacks
trust in their citizens?
Maria LaBrutti said, If it makes America a safer place, then I suppose I am
supportive.
It seems no one is informed or decisive on a matter that affects how our
information being used by people other than how we intended it. Section 215 attempts
to protect our country, yet we have started to impede on privacy. Must we give way to
one to have the other?
Clearly current policies are not working to satisfy both national security and
personal privacy.

There is little to no evidence to support the fact that collecting and storing phone
number data of millions of Americans has stopped a terrorist attack. Even the
Presidents Review Board said the information contributed to terrorist investigations by
the use of section 215 telephony meta-data was not essential to preventing attacks.
According to
As a way to sooth the tension, The White House released a press release stating
on March 2014 Based on a recommendation from the Director of National Intelligence
and the Attorney General, the President proposed that the data should remain at the
telephone companies rather than with the government, with a new legal mechanism that
would allow the government to obtain data from these companies pursuant to individual
court orders. This proposal, which would require new legislation, would preserve the
essential features of the bulk telephony metadata program, while addressing legitimate
concerns about the potential for abuse of this information.
Section 215 was designed with a sunset clause, meaning it will expire on Jun.1,
2015 and the American People are lined up with beach chairs ready to watch. However,
there is some opposition. This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind
our back, said Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader. He believes that with both
foreign and domestic terrorist issues at large we should not be allowing one of our
largest security assets to expire. Leaving Section 215 will however, not satiate all
terrorism prevention needs so why not alter it to satisfy the American people. Congress
has yet to limit the ability of the government to conduct dragnet surveillance under laws
like Section 215 of the Patriot Act, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
A vote for reauthorization [of Section 215], without comprehensive reform of
NSA spying, will very clearly be a vote against the Constitution, according to Nadia
Kayyali of The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Along with issues of privacy we now have
to decide whether granting the NSA that power will be unconstitutional. According to
Fight215.org, and many other frustrated American citizens, it is.