The National Security Agency (NSA) has been monitoring smartphone devices since 2010 according to documents released by former intelligence agent Eric Snowden. Documents apparently showed that the NSA cracked the platform of major smartphone makers, namely: Google Android, Blackberry mobile operating system, and Apple iOS. This form of telecommunication surveillance raises constitutional implications that the government has stretched the Patriot Act to its breaking point.

German news outlet SPIEGEL was granted access to NSA documents relating to surveillance of smartphones and issued a report on their findings on September 9, 2013. SPIEGEL’s report relies on NSA presentations that, among other things,details how iPhone files on computers –stored when a user synchronizes their phone– contain valuable information such as contact lists, call logs, and drafts of text messages. From this information, the NSA has developed reliable “scripts” that perform surveillance on different features of the iPhone, which include location features from third-party applications, geolocation of individuals to track their movements over time, and pictures taken with the iPhone’s camera.

How the NSA developed these scripts remains a mystery. SPIEGEL postulates that the organization hacked into the servers of private companies and stole encryption keys, or collaborated with technology companies to build back doors into their software, or else covertly introduced weaknesses into encryption standards.

The reason why smartphones are so attractive to intelligence gathering agencies, according to SPIEGEL, is that users suffer from “nomophobia.” That is, smartphone users take a carefree approach to their devices, which are in reality mini-computers. Smartphone users, use their devices as personal communication centers, digital secretaries, and personal motivators. This allows the NSA and other intelligence gathering entities to track a smartphone user’s social contacts, behaviors, location, interests (from search terms used on search engines), photos, and credit card/password information. As it were, the iPhone has gone from creating limitless channels of communication to creating limitless channels to invade users’ privacy under the power granted by the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act has expansive power when it comes to limiting American’s right to privacy. The Act is highly criticized by those who hold an individual’s right to privacy as the most fundamental right in our country. From the SPIEGEL article, it now appears that the Patriot Act has ushered in George Orwell’s surveillance state. It is now time to have an open discussion about the powers granted by the Patriot Act and how our government plans to monitor those who invoke its power.

Proponents of the NSA’s tactics will likely argue that the surveillance protocol is only utilized for targeted individuals and tow the party line of “we have nothing to hide.” However, it is the further reaching implications of this use of the Patriot Act that necessitates the need for an open discussion about how the Act is utilized.

From the SPIEGEL article it is known that the NSA has a “Tailored Access Operation Department” that allows them to crack even the toughest of smartphone encryptions, which appears to be overstepping the purpose of the program which is to monitor valuable target information not to create a leviathan. The wealth of information that is procured by the NSA has also spawned a NSA Department responsible for customized surveillance operations against high interest targets, the ancillary to this a general surveillance operation against everyday individuals. Also, task forces that intensely study operating systems created for consumer use are only an inferential step away from an enforcement agency that polices the telecommunications of all citizens.

At its worst this form of surveillance can mutate into a government initiative to utilize public surveillance. If information is being stored, even as a precautionary measure, it is still available for future use if the Patriot Act enjoys greater acceptance. For this reason, the public may need to develop wariness to their smartphones and third-party applications. The prompt: “XYZ would like to use your current location” appears less attractive when the reality is that the NSA may be accessing your device and can thereby gather your private information.