The NSA Files: Security, Privacy & Legality

What can be done on our behalf or to us in the name of security? Do we have a right to privacy? Is it even legal for the government to collect the kind of information that has been exposed in the NSA files? What causes a whistle blower to take action outside the system? And once they take action do whistle blowers have legal protection?

There have been many informal discussions on security, privacy and the legality of all it in the halls of McKelvy since the Snowden leaks began. Our first Discussion of the Spring Semester will grapple with the information revealed by these leaks and the questions we’ve started to ask. Please join us at 6pm in McKelvy House on February 2.

The following articles and multimedia will provide background information on the topic. Think about the questions posed and what questions you have after viewing the information.

• NSA Files Decoded: The Guardian’s major multimedia project that outlines the information through articles, interviews, video & interactive infographics to lay out what these revelations mean for you.
• Daily Show Interview: “Privacy in the Age of Big Data” author Theresa Payton details the myriad ways in which technology threatens private information.

• US spy leaks: How intelligence is gathered: A BBC article that covers the previously unknown methods on how information was being gathered about individuals & companies but has only been revealed since the leaks began.
• NSA collection of phone data is lawful, federal judge rules: The Washington Post covers how one federal judge (U.S. District Judge William J. Pauley) ruled the collection of phone data legal on Dec. 27 while another federal judge (U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon) on Dec. 16 found that the metadata violated the 4th Amendment.
• Independent review board says NSA phone data program is illegal and should end: Follow up by the Washington Post
• State Whistleblowers Laws: The National Conference of State Legislatures outlines which states have whistleblower protection laws and what exactly these laws say