Nsa Policies and Privacy

NSA Policies and Privacy

In 2006 USA TODAY reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been secretly collecting phone call records of American citizens. The purpose of this collection of phone records is to look for terrorist activity. We will evaluate how the collection of phone records lines up with the policies of the NSA and how those policies affect the average American citizens. We will also look into the legality of these collection methods. Lastly we will look into the privacy implications of the policies of the NSA.

Origins of the NSA

The National Security Agency was established on November 4, 1952 (“Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”, 2009). Prior to the NSA there was the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). The ASFA was established on May 20, 1949 and was established to direct the communications intelligence and electronic intelligence activities of the military (“The National Security Agency”, 2000). The NSA’s formation came after a report known as the "Brownell Committee Report," looked into the history of U.S. communications intelligence activities and discovered there was a need for greater coordination and direction at the national level in regards to intelligence activities (“The National Security Agency”, 2000). After the NSA was formed the realization that complete control over all intelligence activities would be impossible due to the dependence on the military structures to man field stations. To help mitigate this flaw operational and technical control over all intelligence activities was granted to the NSA (Burns, 1990). The NSA is a highly secretive organization that only in recent times has had any amount of information about them released. This is largely due to Congressional hearings and investigative research (“The National Security Agency”, 2000). The most recent exposure surrounding the NSA is the release of information that the NSA is collecting phone records of American citizens in an effort to look for terrorist...