Recently there has been controversy over the NSA (National Security Agency) and their invasion of privacy in people’s lives, including foreign rulers. A document was released by The Washington Post and Britain’s Guardian on June 5 and 6, 2013, with classified information of the NSA storing and recording every American’s phone records, supposedly with the help of Google, Facebook and Microsoft (Programs named PRISM). The Internet companies give access of emails, photos and videos. All of this, is for the ability to look and monitor for signs of terrorism and create a safe environment for the citizens of the U.S.

The government has a responsibility to make sure people of the United States feel safe and have their own privacy. Some believe that our privacy has been broken, but it is also a necessity. In order for us to be safe, the government does need to have the ability to monitor some people if they are showing suspicious behavior or there is a chance they could be planning a terrorist attack on the U.S.

President Barack Obama claims, “The U.S. is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security,” but creates further controversy on the rumor the NSA spied on other country allies and rulers.

“Unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies,” said Obama in theguradian. He was trying to reassure the people of the United States and other countries, their privacy is important and will not be taken advantage of.

“Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats,” said James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, believing the NSA is only doing what is right for the U.S.

Doing this to other leaders and countries though, is not right and can create even more problems with other places in the world and even our own allies.

Obama also stated though, that he hopes to create trust and help reassure our close nations and allies of our intentions. “Our intelligence agencies will continue to gather information about the intentions of governments, as opposed to ordinary citizens around the world, in the same way the Intelligence service around the world, of every other nation does,” said Obama, mainly summarizing the fact that we are not the only country that uses this same type of program to protect its country from any form of danger.

The NSA has the advantage of knowing who can cause a threat to our country and uses that ability to protect us from any harm and create a safe environment for the United States.