Some Eastern Michigan University students are perturbed the National Security Agency is spying on millions of Americans, but some do not care much at all.
EMU senior Kaity Krontz, a communications major, said the government has no right to her personal information.
“In a relationship, if someone goes through your phone or all your stuff, you wouldn’t put up with it,” she said. “It just makes you realize your phone and your computer are not yours.”
Krontz said although President Obama should share the blame, there are many others responsible as well.
“You can’t put the blame on one party or one president. This has been going for longer than any of us probably realize by Republicans and Democrats alike.”
UK newspaper The Guardian broke the news earlier this month and said the U.S. government was using top secret court orders to listen to millions of calls from Verizon customers. It was revealed the NSA had been collecting data on hundreds of millions of citizens even if there was no suspicion of terrorism, and it has been heavily covered by the media since the initial story was released.
EMU senior Virgil Hare said U.S. citizens’ personal information is in trusted hands.
“They are just looking for key words,” he said. “I’m not too worried about it.”
As a computer science major, Hare said he was not surprised the government has the ability to collect massive amounts of data from millions of citizens.
Many argue the Bill of Rights should protect them from government snooping.
The Fourth Amendment says, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
EMU senior and biology major Malcolm Childs said it is a difficult argument to take a stance on.
“It’s a gift and a curse,” Childs said. “You can’t be too careful in today’s world with all the terrorism, but we should have a say on how much privacy we are given.”
He also said the public outcry may only deter the government from spying on its own citizens for a brief period.
“For the time being, they are probably going to back off. But then it will be back to business as usual.”
The New York Times reported that Gen. Keith B. Alexander, head of the NSA, said the wiretapping and email reading is absolutely necessary. Alexander reported the massive amounts of surveillance and data gathering has helped stop over 50 possible attacks since 9/11, and at least 10 that would have occurred on U.S. soil. He said there were more instances of the positive effects of the agency’s tactics, but they could not be disclosed at the current time.
EMU senior Chelsea Vincent, a communications major, said she is absolutely appalled the government has the ability to access so much of her personal life, and it is not necessary for them the conduct so much surveillance.
“How can you possibly think I’m a terrorist?” Vincent said. “The fact that they are so involved with my personal information just makes me feel creeped out.”
Vincent said the scandal has made her question if the U.S. government is living up to the ideals and standards the citizens expect from the men and women that are representing them in Washington D.C.
“It makes me question what freedom really is, and what America really stands for. How does our government define freedom? Our country prides itself on being so different, but are we that different?”
She said it is hard to fathom what else our elected officials are conducting behind closed doors.
“If this is going on, what else is going on that we don’t about? It kind of freaks me out.”
The Guardian said the NSA has access to Google, Facebook and Apple, and it allegedly had means to conduct searches into personal information since Windows 95 became available to the public in 1995.
EMU senior Kendra Laurion is majoring in social work. She said the scandal is not as dangerous as many make it out to be, and she is not worried about government eavesdropping.
“As a college student, I don’t think it is that big of a deal,” Laurion said. “What can they really find out about an ordinary college student like me?”
But Laurion did say she thought it was a violation of her rights as a U.S. citizen.
“The biggest question I have is, why? Why do they have to go through so much blah information? It makes you wonder what they are looking for and how long have they been doing this.”
She said the espionage on American citizens has likely developed the most within the last couple decades.
“As technology advanced, the types of intrusiveness and the extent of it developed as well, probably,”
She also doesn’t see the internal spying coming to an end anytime soon.
“How can you stop it? It has probably been going on for ages,” she said.
The Washington Post on Friday said the former NSA worker who turned over the top secret material to the press and whose location is currently unknown, Edward Snowden, is being charged with espionage by the federal government. The intelligence leak is considered one of the biggest in U.S. history and subsequently caused an international debate regarding privacy and personal rights.
Bill Teepen is a local resident and moved to Michigan in 2003 from Ohio. He studied for a short period at EMU, and said it is almost impossible to make any changes to the current state of constant surveillance within our society.
“What can you do? Boycott every business that has surveillance cameras or website that gathers information?”
Teepen and everyone interviewed, said the surveillance will become more thorough and intrusive despite the current scandal.
“It will definitely get worse, and nothing can be done about it,” he said.
