Upfront Magazine

The article “Watching You” in Upfront magazine is about how the government is tracking down Americans cell phone calls and the amount of security in America.  The story mentions, body scans, phone tracking, and cameras everywhere. The article presents reasons why these things happen and what certain people think of it. I personally have no problem with all the security and precautions. As long as all of this is helping prevent terrorism and other incidents I think its okay.

For Example, I don’t have a problem with the government having our phone records. “ The N.S.A collects phone company records showing numbers called… it does not listen in on calls.” They don’t even know what you are saying they are just making sure there isn’t something irregular going on. And while some may say that that has no impact the online version of that program has stopped over 50 terrorist attacks before they happened. Included in that sample of stopped attacks is a time where a representative of Al Qaeda (a terrorist group that organized the 9/11 bombings) was going to bomb the NYC subway system. Because of the advanced technology being used the N.S.A found out and the attack never happened. Another example mentioned in the article is the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. Because of surveillance cameras “ the suspects had been identified and captured before they could harm anyone else.” Those are just 2 times where these technology advancements have helped out America and its citizens.

This relates to teenagers because a lot of them probably think their parents violate their privacy. I don’t think mine do but I could see how they feel if they have nothing for just them and have to share everything. They might feel like if the N.S.A has cameras all over the place and can track whom they call and message they are always being watched. And while this may be true, they should learn that it is because of these features that hundreds of lives have been saved. They need to understand that by sacrificing small pieces of information they are helping the N.S.A find out big pieces of information. Before people jump to conclusions on this topic people should look at the big picture.

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