WEBVTT 00:00:00.704 --> 00:00:03.955 The government is monitoring private phone calls 00:00:03.955 --> 00:00:08.621 your children and my children's private phone calls and tracking who their associates are. 00:00:19.478 --> 00:00:23.948 This June we learned that out private lives are no longer private. 00:00:23.948 --> 00:00:27.299 The US government is secretly tracking the emails 00:00:27.299 --> 00:00:32.380 purchases, text messages, location and phone calls of people all over the world. 00:00:32.714 --> 00:00:35.906 Ed Rooney, Ed? This is George Peterson... 00:00:35.956 --> 00:00:39.224 With code names like PRISM and XKEYSCORE, 00:00:39.224 --> 00:00:41.321 this network of monitoring programs 00:00:41.321 --> 00:00:44.740 is just one part of largest surveillance system in history. 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:49.708 This open-ended surveillance system is illegal and operates in total secrecy. 00:00:49.708 --> 00:00:52.828 Under the system, the government can know where you've been, 00:00:52.828 --> 00:00:55.044 where you are, and where you're going. 00:00:55.094 --> 00:00:59.274 The program was only exposed when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden 00:00:59.295 --> 00:01:03.097 leaked documents detailing the extensive data collection. 00:01:03.157 --> 00:01:06.152 I've got information man, new shit is come to light. 00:01:06.782 --> 00:01:11.174 The president, the NSA and their lawyers have tried to deflect the public outrage 00:01:11.268 --> 00:01:15.412 by distorting the facts and misleading the public about the process. 00:01:15.472 --> 00:01:20.600 US courts have never allowed the government to run a spying program of this scale. 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:21.902 So how did this happen? 00:01:21.922 --> 00:01:25.152 Well, lets take a step back, for a minute. 00:01:26.971 --> 00:01:33.364 America's founders hated oppressive British surveillance and unreasonable search and seizure. 00:01:33.406 --> 00:01:35.969 the issue here is independence. 00:01:35.969 --> 00:01:41.050 Understanding that privacy was necessary to almost every basic right in our constitution, 00:01:41.050 --> 00:01:43.081 they established the fourth amendment. 00:01:43.081 --> 00:01:47.781 The fourth amendment exist to prevent the government from tracking or searching your personal information, 00:01:47.835 --> 00:01:51.491 unless they have good reason to believe a crime is happening. 00:01:51.491 --> 00:01:55.195 It's all there black and white, clear as crystal. 00:01:55.367 --> 00:02:00.592 Using the NSA the US government is violating the highest law of the country, the Constitution. 00:02:05.074 --> 00:02:09.552 Government surveillance has gone on for decades, but things got a lot worse in 2001, 00:02:09.552 --> 00:02:12.444 when the US congress passed the Patriot Act, 00:02:12.444 --> 00:02:17.702 giving secret FISA courts more authority to grant surveillance requests on a large scale. 00:02:17.921 --> 00:02:21.777 Instead of getting a warrant for an individual person suspected of crime 00:02:21.857 --> 00:02:24.415 the governement could now search a large list of persons. 00:02:24.415 --> 00:02:27.539 Even those under the no suspicion of criminal activity. 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:31.340 FISA courts aren't required to disclose what court orders are being approved 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:33.578 and supporting evidence isn't needed. 00:02:33.668 --> 00:02:38.440 Of the 1,789 request for authorization, one was withdrawn by the government. 00:02:38.542 --> 00:02:40.480 All the other ones were granted 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:42.042 It's a rubber stamp. 00:02:42.042 --> 00:02:46.906 All of this is protected by secrecy, with no system for checks and balances. 00:02:46.906 --> 00:02:52.598 If the NSA is collecting information on you based on what you read, or the websites you go to 00:02:52.728 --> 00:02:56.664 you'll likely never know or get to stop it no matter who you are. 00:02:56.907 --> 00:02:59.642 Programs like PRISM, completely ignore the purpose of warrants 00:02:59.667 --> 00:03:02.076 while claiming to work within the law. 00:03:02.292 --> 00:03:07.642 The US government has turned the internet we love into something it was never intended to be... 00:03:07.932 --> 00:03:11.174 ...a tool for surveilling everyone. 00:03:15.694 --> 00:03:18.222 This is the most essential problem. 00:03:18.342 --> 00:03:22.152 Through these secret courts and secret interpretations of the laws, 00:03:22.161 --> 00:03:27.164 US government agents can illegally track internet users based on things like keywords, 00:03:27.338 --> 00:03:30.632 Analysts who use a system for a web portal at Fort Mead, 00:03:30.632 --> 00:03:36.566 key in selectors or search terms that are designed to produce at least 51% confidence 00:03:36.566 --> 00:03:38.602 in a targets foreign-ness. 00:03:39.072 --> 00:03:42.606 Data has been collected for years on the most popular websites, 00:03:42.606 --> 00:03:46.499 gmail, facebook, yahoo, and many more. 00:03:48.289 --> 00:03:49.921 There's 1000s of words that government tracks. 00:03:50.131 --> 00:03:56.275 Words like "marijuana" 00:04:01.475 --> 00:04:03.806 Almost any email you send 00:04:03.946 --> 00:04:05.979 might get your account monitored. 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:09.772 This kind of tracking can make you second guess what you say. 00:04:10.145 --> 00:04:13.445 That's why mass spying is unconstitutional. 00:04:13.515 --> 00:04:17.460 Abuses are inevitable and data leaks are already happening. 00:04:17.460 --> 00:04:21.996 Spying on our internet usage gives the government power over our lives. 00:04:22.049 --> 00:04:26.413 What happens to free speech, free association, or a free press, 00:04:26.419 --> 00:04:31.922 when everyone is under constant surveillance, even in our most private moments. 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:39.662 Experts on surveillance, privacy and intelligence agree on one thing. 00:04:40.251 --> 00:04:44.131 The NSA, Presidents Bush and Obama and their secret courts are 00:04:44.261 --> 00:04:47.724 interpreting multiple laws in a way that most Americans would find shocking. 00:04:47.724 --> 00:04:50.193 This is allowing the kind of surveillance and collection 00:04:50.202 --> 00:04:53.124 that the Constitution was not meant to allow. 00:04:53.124 --> 00:04:55.072 These programs break the law. 00:04:55.542 --> 00:04:59.545 They violate the fourth amendment and they strip us of our privacy. 00:04:59.703 --> 00:05:04.459 The US Constitution was written to prevent government surveillance programs like PRISM. 00:05:04.484 --> 00:05:08.507 It's up to us to demand that these ideals be upheld. 00:05:08.615 --> 00:05:16.405 Help us stop the NSA, restore the Constitution and keep the world free.