The national news continues to rock the White House about reports that the government has been collecting phone records of millions of Americans.
Over the weekend, a former National Security Agency contractor said he was the one who leaked the information about the NSA.
At the Wyoming Valley Mall, shoppers go about doing something that has become as normal as breathing: talk on their cell phones.
However reports that the government has been secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Americans is something that doesn`t sit well.
“It is very scary, if I`m talking to my boyfriend I don`t want anyone else, that`s an invasion of privacy and I don`t think that right at all,” said Tabitha Scerbo of Hazleton.
The news first broke last week that the National Security Agency was using spy programs to track the phone calls and computer records of Americans.
Over the weekend, 29-year old Edward Snowden, a former NSA consultant said he was the one to leak the information.
Snowden had been hiding in Hong Kong out of fear of government retaliation but now his whereabouts are unknown.
Some feel Snowden did the right thing.
“I came from a communist country that was Cuba and that`s the kind of stuff they were enjoy doing or they are enjoying doing, I think we have to keep it to be a free country,” said Robert Sarzo of New York City.
The White House has defended the NSA`s actions saying this is a court-approved program used in terrorism investigations.
“If they think that we`re terrorists then go ahead but other than that, if there`s no reason why then they should be tracking our phones,” said Scerbo.
Still some said after 9/11 they realize to protect our freedoms some freedoms may have to be compromised.
“It`s a double edged sword I think, it`s good but how do you single out the people at are bad, you know?'” said John Pechulis of Sugar Notch.
Despite that reaction from Luzerne County, according to a new poll done by Washington Post-Pew Research Center 56 percent of those who responded felt the secret tracking programs are “acceptable”.