Communicating with family and friends should be reserved for one person and the person or persons they’re talking to; no third party should be eavesdropping. That‘s just manners. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t agree.

Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) member Edward J. Snowden shocked Americans and others around the world with a revelation that the NSA was keeping records of conversations of US citizens and even people outside the American boundaries through emails, phone-calls and internet usage.

“While I’m sitting at my desk, I certainly have the authority to wiretap anyone from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president if  I had a personal email,” Snowden said to Leak Source News.

It is both shocking and disturbing how the government can so simply peer into lives and quickly share our private information to anyone with the sending of a few emails.

The surveillance program was formed soon after the 9/11 attacks, having the government monitor international calls to find a link with Al-Qaeda. After the terrorist group died, the purpose of PRISM (Planning Tools for Resource Integration, Synchronization and Management) died along with it. However, the invasive program continued.

Having this program in place after 9/11 was justified, but 12 years later, the program is no longer rational.

The public did not even realize the program existed until 2005, when the New York Times wrote of former President Bush authorizing warrantless eavesdropping on foreigners and citizens in the U.S.

Bush admitted to having authorized the NSA to spy on 100-500 people that were suspected of terrorism. However, as time passes, America has come to learn how much the program PRISM has grown since its beginnings.

The NSA now records hundreds of thousands of phone calls and emails of almost any person outside of America, and of many inside.  This raises one of the most controversial debates of 2013: Is the NSA overstepping their boundaries? The answer is yes.

This system is a serious invasion of privacy. PRISM is looking deeper than the blogs on the internet that everyone can see. It’s able to peer into lives with the ability to view emails, phone calls and almost anything imaginable.

“We didn’t fight the Cold War just so we could rebuild the Stasi ourselves,” Google chief architect Yonatan Zunger said to the Washington Post.

The NSA has been invading citizen’s rights since 2001 without giving them any to little knowledge over the years. James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, had flat out denied any type of surveillance program in March of 2013 before the Senate panel.

“There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect [intelligence on Americans], but not wittingly,” Clapper said.

Not one person can be completely sure that their conversation is private. PRISM picks up key words that make you a target of their surveillance.

Common slang, such as saying “you da bomb,” attracts attention through PRISM. Saying “mine is the white house on the left,” can give you a red-flag, even if there is no other evidence of potential terrorism.

The NSA’s continuous masking of the truth has broken the trust of many citizens, as they were believing that they were able to communicate with no intervention.

However, the truth finally got out when Snowden released information of the NSA in May. Snowden brought light to the issue, and now many people wonder what privacy they have on the computer. In fact, there is a 49 percent chance that the data being collected is from an American citizen.

“I don’t feel as if there have been enough restrictions on the program, especially in how it pertains to American citizens. Having just over a fifty-fifty shot at whether someone is an American or not just isnt the level of certainty that we need when we’re talking about our constitutional rights,” senior Ethan Witt said.

Only one restriction held the NSA back from legally collecting data: Section 702.

Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), no American citizen can be targeted for surveillance. Funny, because it’s sounds like what NSA is doing is illegal. That is until the NSA found their loophole in 2011.

Americans can now be targeted if they get a warrant by FISA, and it’s not difficult for them to do it. FISA became NSA’s partner in crime.

FISA accepted all 1,789 requested by the NSA. Outrage is the first word that comes to mind.

“It’s basically American Idol with four Randy Jacksons,” Daily Show host John Oliver said in his show.

PRISM costs $20 million per year to run, and with America being $16 trillion in debt, the expensive program creates a large gap in the goal of becoming debt-free.

Instead of using this substantial amount of money on helping people, the government has chosen to use it to spy on people. The opportunity to change a large sum of citizens lives has been lost due to the NSA. When there is only a 51 percent chance of a person being foreign, the cost of the NSA overrides the protection given against terrorism.

The biggest cost of PRISM, however, is our freedom.

“Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it,” Snowden said.