Security is paramount for the advancement and stability of the United States of America. Today, exists a world where security is increasingly threatened by numerous terrorists, spanning the globe. The National Security Agency has an obligation to ensure the safety of the American citizens by surveying the intelligence information necessary, private or public, to prevent future acts of terrorism. Therefore, a debate ensues regarding whether the N.S.A. should continue surveillance on the American citizens in order to protect them from future terrorist attacks. The N.S.A. was formed in 1952. The National Security Agency has been providing crucial intelligence information to U.S. decision makers and military leaders for more than half a century. This delicate and sensitive information has in turn, “Prevented over 50 terrorist attacks on American soil” (NSA). The primary stated mission of the National Security Administration is to, “protect American lives” (NSA). This protection involves the use of certain data mining programs which use specific indicators to search public and private information for identifying possible terrorists against America. The social belief of an actual, “person” viewing personal information is denied by the Department of Justice and the N.S.A.” (Justice). The N.S.A. computer program, PRISM, is used instead of the insurmountable man-hours that would be needed to sift through all of the collected data. In order to maintain legality and fairness, the “N.S.A. is subject to the same checks and balances as all three branches of our United States government” (NSA). This universal American system prevents the abuse of, or shift of power within the N.S.A. This system is also available for random review by impartial, elected government officials at any given time to soothe the scrutiny of the unprivileged American public. Many American Citizens state personal freedoms are at stake due to spying from the Na