Category: Edward Snowden

Whistleblowing is the act of disclosing to the authorities or the public the immoral, illegal, or incorrect information or activities of an organization. The persons who practice whistleblowing are called whistleblowers and are submitted to some controversial opinions. This is the case of one of the most famous whistleblowers of this decade who is Edward Snowden. After he revealed some highly classified information about the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 related to the US government’s surveillance program, his act is considered as a heroic act for some, and a betrayal, even a crime, for others. This essay will weigh the pros and cons of this disclosure realized by Edward Snowden.

Delving into the pros first, this act of disclosure has allowed to denounce the mass surveillance programs of the government to all the population. Indeed, the release of these documents has made the public, the authorities and the companies reconsider the safety of the cloud technology. This act has triggered some issues related to individual privacy on the Internet that people were not aware of. By leaking these documents about National Security Agency mass surveillance, Internet users, not only from USA, but also from other countries, became aware of they were being watched by the US government through their electronics devices, regardless of what they were doing on the Internet. Thanks to this leak, people from other countries started to be conscious that even some American electronic technologies like software, phones, or even computers could have some ‘doorway’ to allow American intelligence to collect some data about them. For instance, as a result of this leak realized by Edward Snowden, a survey by the Harris Poll in April 2014 reported that the number of Americans using Internet for online shopping, banking and emailing decreased. Moreover, this disclosure was also such a catalyst that allows the government and companies to take care of the privacy and the opinion of Internet users. The companies which use the Internet reinforced their security systems to protect their customers. Most of the technological companies decided to pay attention and invest in encryption features and the safety of cloud technology. For example, since this denunciation, Apple decided to use a system where the data of the customer using an Apple device will be stored on the device itself, instead of being stocked on Apple’s iCloud service, so that they couldn’t have access to the personal data of their customers. Thanks to this disclosure, US President Barak Obama also announced on 9th of August 2013 a reform concerning the intelligence surveillance programs in order to reconcile Americans safety and their privacy, which stated that the National Security Agency should no longer gather some call records from the US citizens or companies without a court approval. So, this act has allowed the population to be aware of what they are exposed to on the Internet, and it forced American companies and the American government to take new resolutions about the privacy of Internet users. This disclosure can be considered as a successful whistleblowing act because it at least made Americans aware of this privacy issues on the Internet.

With respect to the cons, though this disclosure allows a new era for the cloud technology, where all people are aware of the privacy issues, this act of Edward Snowden remains a theft of the US government properties which threatens the country’s national security. This act revealed to everyone, regardless of their intent, one of the systems of national protection in the USA. As a matter of fact, some organizations, such as al-Qaeda, decided to review their encryption methods, after the release, so that American intelligence could not have access to their data. This jeopardized the ability of the US to protect the population from some jihadists attacks. In addition, Snowden stole what could be called like ‘state secrets’, and as a result of that, he has been charged by the government of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He betrayed the National Security Agency and broke the trust they had in him, exposing these secrets, and became intentionally or not considered as a spy sent by other countries like Russia, where he has currently found an asylum. Unfortunately, this disclosure made other nations around the world become more and more suspicious about US electronic devices, afraid of being spied by US intelligence, and it created a very big loss in the computing industry, of more than thirty-five billion US dollars, according to a study of the Information Technology and Innovation, published in August 2013. Thus, this act can be qualified under the law as a crime, and it even reassesses the real causes of this leak.

To conclude, this leak realized by Edward Snowden is double-edged, because it is at the same time a very heroic act which shows the people that the US government was violating their privacy using one of most popular technology of the decade, but it is also a robbery of some US government properties which endangered the US security. Personally, I believe that Edward Snowden is a whistleblower. Despite the fact that he is legally culpable of some crimes against the US, he is ethically unguilty because, he refused to participate in this unjust masquerade of the US government by leaking this information and putting his life in danger.

Growing up in the peak of technology was both a curse and a blessing to me. On one hand, I got access to more information and things to do than any generation before. I’ve had the ability my whole life to have access to any piece of information in the world at the grasp of my fingertips. Once I hit middle school, the social media craze began. Everyone eager to pour their whole lives out to their followers. My family and I were relentless with our social media usage, documenting our everyday happenings. It wasn’t until my brother graduated college and applied for a new job that we began to smarten up on our social media usage. My brother applied for a job at a company called Booz-Allen Hamilton, the same company the patriot discussed later worked at. When my brother applied, they did an extensive background check making sure that he had no criminal record or anything of the sort. After searching his record, they made him take a lie detector test. During the lie detector test they questioned him on every private part of his life trying to see if they could crack him and make him admit to something. They questioned him about credit card purchases, speeding tickets, everything about his life. When my family heard about this my parents were terrified. Things that my brother thought were just messages between friends were seen by people in the government. My family, my mom specifically, started forcing each other to become way more cautious with our phone usage. When a man by the name of Edward Snowden came around all these secrecies were confirmed. He decided that the people of America had been living in the dark for too long. When he released classified documents to the world, he educated every single American citizen on how to stay protected from prying eyes and theft. Even though there are those who thing that what he did was a bad thing, he risked his life to inform people on how they were living under a lying government.

Edward Snowden is a whistleblower formerly working for the U.S. government who leaked official government documents, enlightening the American citizens about the governments unethical spying on its citizens. Coming up as a kid, Edward Snowden was born in North Carolina, then moved to Maryland, where he would experience most of his youth. While in high school, Snowden made the decision to drop out. After dropping out of high school he enrolled at Anne Arundel Community College to study computers. Edward had a passion to serve; between his stints at community college, Snowden spent four months in special forces training. Later in life, after continuing to pursue his passion to serve, he managed to land job as a security guard at the University of Maryland Center that had ties to the NSA. This job turned out very beneficial for Edward as it eventually led to him landing an information technology job with the CIA. For the next three years he bounced from different IT job to IT job until finally landing at a private contractor for the NSA called Booz-Allen Hamilton. While working for Booz-Allen, he began to collect documents and files that he believed were examples where the government was being unethical and spying on its citizens. Edward Snowden believed that this information was so important that he was willing to risk his life and ruin his chances at living in the country he was born to, in order for the people to be aware of what the government was truly doing.

Snowden informed the American people about how their privacy was being invaded daily. Since the age of the Internet began, the government has been finding ways to keep an edge up on the rest of society. Our conversations, which we believed to be of the utmost privacy, were actually being viewed and saved into government databases. According to John Cassidy of The New Yorker, the leaks “confirmed that the U.S. government, without obtaining any court warrants, routinely collects the phone logs of tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of Americans, who have no links to terrorism whatsoever” (qtd. in Cassidy). Edward Snowden risked his life to inform the country that every single thing they ever do on their phones is monitored and can be accessed at the governments will. Cell phones were not the private devices that the government has access to. They also have the ability to access U.S. based Internet companies. Some of the larger ones including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, among others. This heroic act by Snowden protected millions of people from unethical spying by the government.

In addition to having access to all phone usage and Internet searches of its citizens, the government also has access to the information that people consider to be of top secrecy. While talking to The Guardian, Edward said that, “The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards” (qtd. In Cassidy). Not only can the government access our online conversations and social media information at their whim, they also can look at our most private information like passwords, your credit card number, and virtually any piece of information connected to the Internet. Having phone records and Internet searches viewed is undoubtedly enough alone to be seen as a heinous act, now add every other form of online action to that list. Without Snowden’s leaks, the NSA would have carried on spying on its citizens while they citizens sat by, oblivious to it all. There are those in government who have also just become aware of the spying and are taking action to correct these invasions of privacy. Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative James Sensenbrenner supported the USA Freedom Act with the intent of ending the spying and collection of private data altogether.

The information revealed in the leaks helped society by pushing the government to pass new acts and laws with the purpose of completely ending all government invasion of citizens’ Internet privacy. Therefore, I am convinced that Edward Snowden is a hero.

Edward Snowden, born on June 21, 1983, is an American fugitive, former Central Intelligence Agency employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013. In high school in 1998, he caught glandular fever which caused him to miss 4 months of school, eventually he flunked out of high school, leading him to in roll in to Anne Arundel Community College. In 2001 his parents split up, leading Wendy, Edwards’s mother, to move to Ellicott City; 1 year later Edward followed here. On March 20th, 2003 the US invaded Iraq, at this time the unemployed Edward Snowden saw an opportunity to become something, maybe due to the fact that his family has coast guard backgrounds. In May 2004, he reported for duty at Fort Benning, Georgia, unfortunately, during his train he broke both of his lags, shortly after he was discharged. In 2005, he got a security guard job at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language, this place was the NSA which at this time they were desperate for computer geeks. Two years later he had then gotten a job offer at the CIA, which he accepted. He then went to Geneva Switzerland, in 2007. In February 2009, he quit the CIA.

The reason he is view by the people to be a considerable ‘patriot’ is because of his actions he took, in 2013. The day that he confessed his actions was June 9th, 2013, this day mark a changing point for the people’s understanding of the government. Many believe what he did was brave, smart, risky, and a service for the American public. ‘Patriot of free press’ is the right to publish and disseminate information, thoughts, and opinions without restraint or censorship, as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is basically what he did by leaking that information. Mostly the citizens of the United States of America consider him a hero for leaking information that we citizens should know.

Edward Snowden remains a traitor to government because he leaked information that they worked so hard to keep from the citizens of the United States of America. Since he leaked it, he was given a warrant out for is arrest. The government contains a lot of elements that benefit the citizens of the United States of America, and even more that don’t, but it is not fair to us that we are being spied on while taking care of our daily activities, like work on a computer or talking on our phones. Edward Snowden now cannot return to the United States due to is actions, but if the event did not take place, the citizens of United States of America would remain blind to what the government has been doing behind the scene.

I believe that Edward Snowden’s actions he took in leaking those files to the community was one of the best thing’s that showed the government who they really are. I personally don’t find him a traitor to the people at all, in fact he did us a favor, he risked possibly getting life in jail or being killed for us just to show us what we’re really dealing with. Edward Snowden is far by one of the most heroic souls I know now, because deep down I wouldn’t have the dignity to do what he did, form this day on he will remain my new idle in terms of being brave and heroic. Edward Snowden is a traitor to the government, but a hero to the people.