Has the United States become a surveillance society?

Question

Has the United States become a surveillance society? Many experts and political commentators have been alarmed by recent revalations by the Wikileaks organization, Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden. Start by conducting independent research into the topic (using scholarly sources) to address the questions below.

Prompts:

What are the constitutional implications of alleged government spying programs?
What is the rationale for their existence?
How do they function within the law?
What reforms do you advocate to preserve privacy in the digital age while gathering intelligence on potential threats?

Answer 1

The United States has not fully become a surveillance society, though there is major concern regarding the privacy of individual Americans. The USA PATRIOT Act is a great example of a law that is now outdated and could potentially be used to overstep on Americans' private information. This act was signed into law in 2001 and expanded government surveillance authority, as well as allowed intelligence agencies to collect and investigate without the same degree of probable cause as standard criminal investigations. This was the government's response to 9/11 and gave US intelligence agencies greater ability to identify and locate terrorists within the United States to prevent future attacks. Though many provisions in the act have expired, provisions like wiretap and surveillance tools under Title II of FISA remain. Many people argue that the data collection of U.S. persons under the PATRIOT Act gave the government the ability to perform warrantless surveillance of citizens, which threatens the integrity of the Fourth Amendment.

Given that the War on Terror has mostly ended, the U.S. government has a responsibility to repeal the active, broad surveillance powers within the PATRIOT Act. Unfortunately, the government has been slow to take serious action in protecting privacy, which contributes to ongoing speculation and concern over growing surveillance within the U.S. We must advocate for policy changes and reform that protect our digital privacy and safeguard our Fourth Amendment rights