Edward Snowden

In 2013, CIA contractor Edward Snowden revealed to select journalists details of the US Government’s surveillance practices. Within these revealed documents was the fact that the communication data of millions of Americans were being collected. This data included phone records, emails sent through Gmail, messages on Facebook, etc. By revealing the documents that detailed these practices to a select set of journalists, rather than the general public, Snowden was attempting to make sure the news was disseminated responsibly (by not revealing anything that was overly sensitive to national security).

In an interview with John Oliver, Snowden said something that really made me feel that he was ethical in his actions. When asked, “Did you do this to solve a problem?” Snowden replied, “I did this to give the American people a chance to decide for themselves the kind of government they want to have. That is a conversation I think the American people deserve to decide.” I completely agree with Snowden. Even when ignoring the question of whether or not the government is ethical in collecting data, the American people at least deserve to know what the government is collecting and how they are doing it. A well-informed public could at least then have a conversation about it, and make changes to the current system if that current system is deemed unethical.

I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as calling Snowden a ‘hero,’ but he is certainly not a traitor. He wanted to reveal this information to increase the freedom of Americans, and let them make decisions about the government they live under. For this reason, I think his efforts benefited the American people. I know especially for me, knowing exactly how these government agencies were collecting personal information, and knowing the vast amount of information collected, I was kind of disturbed. It seemed like not only an invasion of privacy, but also that too much unnecessary information was being collected. The TJX data breach, one of the biggest data breaches of all time, was so devastating because TJX was not only collecting too much unnecessary personal information from customers, but they were keeping it for too long. There should be an adequate and well-explained reason for every piece of information collected and stored, and I believe this is a code of behavior that the US government should adopt and practice. Edward Snowden shining a light on this situation can bring about meaningful changes to the data collection practices in this country.