Politically-thrilling television programs have been all the rage recently. Shows like ABC’s “Scandal” and “House of Cards” from Netflix have taken the public by storm with their dramatic plots and realistic characters. The shows’ fictional scenarios, based primarily on the secret lives and actions of political figures, keep audiences on the edges of their seats. I personally enjoy this television genre immensely. I place myself in the middle of the sneaky, high-energy plot lines and consider it an excellent source of entertainment. However, given recent developments in our own government organizations, I am led to believe the tense situations portrayed in these TV shows may not be as unbelievable as they seem.
   In a recent article by The Washington Post, the U.S. National Security Agency was accused once again for tampering with the privileged and private information of American citizens, as well as American corporations. The information regarding this individual instance was discovered in documents acquired by former NSA employee Edward Snowden. The Post explains through a project called MUSCULAR, the NSA (along with a British intelligence agency) was able to detect a weakness in the transmission of Internet information as it travels overseas that allowed the collection of email address information, text, audio and video.  The NSA is said to have specifically targeted major search engines Yahoo and Google through this project.
   Both Yahoo and Google have legislation which prohibits access to this type of information. Yahoo spokeswoman Sarah Meron was quoted by The Post, “We have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers, and we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency.”
    According to CNN.com, when questioned on this scandal by Bloomberg Television, General Keith Alexander responded, “It would be illegal for us to do that … I can tell you factually we do not have access to Google servers or Yahoo servers. We go through a court order.”
  This evasive answer did not specifically address whether or not the NSA had acquired this information illegally, which leaves much to be desired by the American public.
    In a separate statement to The Post, the NSA said, “The assertion that we collect cast quantities of U.S. persons’ data from this type of collection is not true … NSA applies attorney general-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons.”
    However, U.S. citizens remain skeptical, particularly because the majority of the accused information gathering occurred through servers overseas and, according to The Post, “surveillance conducted overseas falls under an executive order with less restrictive standards.”
    The vastness of the Internet as a whole gives the illusion of privacy. There are millions of daily Internet users; surely the NSA is not interested in my Google searches for “90s Johnny Depp” and “cast of Pride and Prejudice movie with Kiera Knightley.” However, we should not let the seeming insignificance of our own Internet use belittle the importance of the safety of our privacy. The growing amount of distrust between the U.S. government and its citizens has created a very real weakness in our country. In order to keep our own government from becoming TV-drama worthy, we must hold its entities accountable, and (at the risk of sounding paranoid) we must never become too complacent or cease to question those in positions of authority.