Edward Snowden Cons

In any country of the world, the citizens strive to have a sense of security in life and do everything possible to keep their personal life and information safe. Despite the amount of work we put into keeping ourselves safe, there’s still the possibility of our safety being breached, even from those we don’t suspect. Such as our government, which is set in place to keep our nation intact and make sure all citizens are safe from all harm possible. At times, however, they breach our personal records and accounts to do what they do best and prevent as much harm as possible on our county. The government has several surveillance systems in place that monitor all of our daily activities and these systems remained invisible until one man, Edward Snowden a former CIA employee and former government contractor, leaked classified information from the USNSA (United States National Security Agency) in 2013.
He flew and hid in Hong Kong to meet with a reporter, he believed he could trust and with him, he carried a bag full of classified files, by removing those files he was already facing life in prison. He shared every one of his files and instead of running in fear he went public revealing that he was behind the leaks, with several government surveillance tactics, such as, the Prism. This was the largest government leak in history by a man now seen as the Whistleblower. Upon the publication of the classified information in The Guardian the very controversial topic arose, is the government going too far? People in the nation began to fear and feel exploited by the government, ultimately losing trust in the government. Demonstrating the need, for proper balance between privacy and government surveillance to be set in place so privacy isn’t breached, protection and prevention can be in place, and distrust in the government can be