Since 2001, post the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, the United States government has beefed up its counter-terrorism security, under the leadership of both democratic and republican presidents. However, the U.S. is always one step behind the terrorists, or though it seems. Al-Qaeda took to the air, so, the U.S. increased airport security measures (Knowles, 2013). In the last 12 years, so many changes to airport security have been implemented, most, in reaction to terrorist threats; undergarment bombs, shoe bombs, liquid bombs and many others. Traveling through an airport is so difficult because of all these regulations (Hall and Patrick, 2006). In attempt to discontinue this reactionary security, the U.S. is monitoring pretty much all digital activity, both within homeland United States and on foreign soil. While this was all but a theory, thought to be possible but still fictionalized by the likes of Hollywood, earlier this year, an the NSA analyst, namely Edward Snowden, leaked documentation in an official act of treason against the U.S., confirming the existence of such a program (McWhirter and Bible, 1992). Throughout this paper, I will provide sufficient background information and evidence that will analyze directly how the U.S. government and the NSA specifically, breached the rights of its citizens, as well as, offer both sides of the argument for doing so. I will focus on third-party involvement from big data companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook on providing private customer information to the government, both before and after the Snowden leaks. To culminate my research I’ll explore the differences between keeping tab on U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens using constitutional support.
The U.S. Government and the NSA Breached the Rights of its Citizens: The non-governmental organizations, Lawyers, activists and analysts might have supported the information provided by