Snowden And Privacy Analysis

Technology is advancing, a fact no one can ignore. While being able to record all your hit tv shows isn’t the most damaging thing, cameras, on the other hand, can be. On June 5th, 2013, an English newspaper, Guardian, released top secret information about America’s foreign intelligence. Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee and the (anti)”hero” of the story, revealed all this and more after fleeing to Hong Kong to avoid persecution. With the truth out, controversies of the government’s power were voiced. America might not be as “free” as it claims to be. This isn’t the first time the government has been revealed to the public eye. As many often say, “History is doomed to repeat itself.” During the Vietnam War, pentagon papers were leaked by a man named Daniel Ellsberg. Many have compared the two incidents, including Fred Kaplin as seen in paragraph 7 of his article, and even Ellsberg himself. While the results are somewhat different, as Snowden has several death threats, the cause was the same: the government is keeping more secrets than we know, and this cannot be healthy.
The big problem here is our privacy being violated and there being little to no trust from the opposing side. As Snowden says in an interview on reddit, “There must always be a balance of power between governing and the governed (Will Oremus, 19).” He continues to say in another interview that the government has, “surveillance of innocent people (Barton Gellman, Aaron Blake and Greg Miller, 2).” Senator Ron Wyden, on the topic of how much the government has hiding with its surveillance works, said: “Americans would be ‘stunned’ (Robert Barnes, Timothy B. Lee and Ellen Nakashima, 12).” Many are also upset by the “lack of transparency (Barnes, Lee, & Nakashima, 6 – 7) the government had promised us once Obama was in office. Is our ignorance bliss, or are we being put at risk by our own