User blog comment:Semanticdrifter/Digital Protest Against the FISA Improvements Act/@comment-5762703-20140206084313/@comment-1142365-20140206092527

In around May-June last year, revelations started pouring out from various sources about the National Security Agency's (the "spy agency"'s) role in the surveillance of online and other forms of communications on a very large scale. This surveillance takes place worldwide and is not just against Americans. One of the main issues people have with this is that it is understood to be an invasion of their privacy and that it is "un-American" - representing a disillusion of a truly free and Democratic nation. On the flip side, the reason generally understood for why the NSA does this is to stop global terrorism and other criminal activities.

This is a highly complex and relevant issue and that paragraph above provides the most basic overview of it, and further reading is definitely required to understand it to a more significant degree. Here are some links to get started:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_global_surveillance_disclosures
 * http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files
 * https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

As with anything like this, it is important to consider both sides of the argument before coming to a judgment. There are definitely two sides to this one, both of which have strong reasoning, so it's worth some good research if you want to learn more about it.