There is no denying the fact that cell phones have transformed and impacted our lives immensely. Just a few years ago, we were flipping our dispensable phones open and sending text messages that could take up to minutes to complete. Now, advanced smartphones take a matter of seconds to power on and launch applications that never existed on our cheap "flip-phones,"" such as a fast internet browser, social networking, and even precise location services. These advanced smartphones that revolutionize ways of communication and provide easier access to information have begun to create controversy, in terms of exposing the privacy of cell phone users - mainly due to government surveillance and data retentions. .
Recently, around 6 out of 10 Americans showed disapproval of the government collecting phone records from the public - not just from suspected criminals - to fight terrorism, according to a CBS poll (Government Phone Snooping, 2013, para. 2). These Americans have sufficient reason to feel this way, due to the increase in domestic surveillance from our government. Government surveillance has caused a huge invasion of privacy on the public, and laws and policies need to change so that innocent lives are not being watched upon without reasonable cause.
Before showing why government surveillance has gone too far, it is essential to understand where these surveillances come from. The majority of government spying is done by an agency within the government, called the National Security Agency - also known as the NSA. Their main goal is to intercept, analyze, and store any sort of communication signals, whether overseas or within the United States, to gain foreign intelligence and counterintelligence and provide as much security to the nation as possible (NSA, 2011).
While the NSA collects and stores all phone records of every American citizen, they also have the important job of protecting the government's complete system of communications and information (Nakashima, 2008, para.