In March of 2014, Edward Snowden virtually appeared into the TED headquarters to speak about his NSA breach. He started talking about how he is not a hero, and how he is comfortable with the information that he leaked.
He explained PRISM, which is a program in which the government can compel Corporate America to do its dirty work for the USA. Companies tried to challenge this program in a secret court, and continually lost. He talked about how "secret" judges in "secret" court ruled the concept of PRISM lawful, but PRISM has never been tried in a public court.
Snowden believes that in order for companies to protect themselves from the NSA, "the biggest thing that an Internet company in America can do, right now, is to enable web encryption on every page you visit. That will increase the privacy and rights that people have worldwide."
Boundless Informant is a NSA program hidden by Congress, and it was hidden because "to tell Congress would be to invade their privacy." Very briefly, this program shows that there is more communication intercepted in America about Americans than in Russians by Russia.
On Snowden's idea worth spreading: "The last year has been a reminder that democracy may die behind closed doors, but we as individuals are born behind those same closed doors. We don't have to give up our privacy to have good government, we don't have to give up our liberty to have security."
The Deputy Director of the NSA, Richard Ledgett made some responses to Edward Snowden's TED appearance. He mentioned that there was a little bit of truth to the information disclosed but there were also a lot of extrapolations and half-truths. When Ledgett was asked for specific examples of how Edward Snowden put our lives at risk, he simply said that "our people overseas in dangerous places face a greater risk," completely avoiding the purpose of the question. Ledgett kept his answers very vague, which makes Edward Snowden's argument that much more valid. Granted, there would be a breach of security if the NSA disclosed what they were doing. However, the NSA is keeping everything very vague and that just makes them look much more guilty.
What has always intrigued me about the outrage over the NSA is that most educated people knew that this was happening and have known this for a while. I was honestly surprised that people did not realize or know that the government has the ability to sort through all of our data. What Snowden did was completely outrageous not only because he leaked confidential information but mostly because he only did this for attention. You can argue until your face turns blue that he did it to enlighten the people, but who all really read all those documents? People who want to hurt America, not your average American. I believe that the government should always put our safety first, and if they are able to stop terrible things from happening because they have the ability to search through my data then I am okay with that. If you are not doing anything wrong, you should have nothing to hide. It's great to try to live by your principles, but anyone who's been a leader knows that principles are not always practical.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above point to an extent. While Snowden may not have really helped anyone or done anything but "enlighten" the public because they "deserve" to know, I think the function people like him serve in our society is very important. The government does have to hide some things to protect our national security, but I honestly think way too much is kept behind closed doors. I have nothing to hide and don't mind terribly if information on me is collected, but we should have a right to know what is collected and why. I definitely don't think Snowden is a wonderful person by any means, but I think he is trying to hold our government accountable for its actions, which I think is a really really good thing. I don't think he should be forced to live in Russia as a social outcast and traitor to our nation. Yes, he violated his contract as a government employee, but this is a country about the people, not the government. We should not be so critical of Snowden--he gave up a perfectly comfortable life to stand up for something he believed in.
ReplyDeleteEver since Snowden's revelations about the secret programs being conducted by the NSA I have been on the fence. On one hand I understand the need for security and secrets in today's world, on the other hand I have wondered whether we are giving up to much privacy for the sake of security? At the end of the day I believe what Snowden did was the right thing. He sparked a debate about the what the government was doing in the name of national security. Snowden also accomplished this in a responsible manner, by not, as far as I know, placing any innocent people in harms way. As to whether any real and lasting changes will result because of his leaks that I do not know. But the way I see it the ball is now in our collective court. We can either ignore what we know, trust Congress to implement more overwatch programs on the NSA, or take this issue on ourselves. Our generation is going to be the ones most affected by government overreach and intrusiveness. So it might be in our best interest to put the pressure on legislatures to enact the reforms we want.
ReplyDeleteEdawrd Snowden's actions were, simply put, cowardly and damaging. Snowden could have made legitimate complaints about certain NSA programs, including PRISM, but chose instead to leak this information along with actual valuable NSA activities. There are channels to expose these kinds of affairs that do not compromise national security. Snowden chose not only to leak these secrets, but also the actions of the NSA spying on other countries. Snowden exposed, among other things, how and where the US had penetrated China's military security. Exposing spying on private United States citizens is acceptable as a whistleblower; exposing espionage activities on a country known to have launched cyber attack on the United States within that same year is not.
ReplyDeleteThe decision to flee to Hong Kong and then Russia also speaks volumes. Had Snowden only leaked information about internal affairs, he would not have to fear much. Leaking spying activities on foreign nations constitutes treason at worst. Fleeing the US undermines his creditability; fleeing to Russia undermines it further. Had Snowden exposed internal NSA activities he would be a hero for free speech. Instead he fled to two of the most totalitarian nations on Earth in the name of "free speech".