What Information did Snowden Leak to the Public?

What Information Did Snowden Leak to the Public:

1. Snowden leaked government orders to Verizon to hand over all information on a daily basis, including date and time of phone calls.

Consequences: PRISM was criticized for its ability to collect data on U.S. citizens unintentionally

Emani: The government tried to reassure the American people that the PRISM program was a vital part of national security; however, many Americans began to question the government’s right to spy on its citizens and a national debate quickly erupted.

2. Snowden leaked 41 power point slides re: government collection of personal data from search histories, e-mail and file transfers.

Consequences: PRISM was criticized for its ability to collect data on U.S. citizens unintentionally.The government can access live information, photos, video chats and data from social networks directly through the companies’ servers without required consent from the individual or individual court orders.

PRISM was widely criticzed for its ability to collect data on American citizens. These revelations occurred at the same time a meeting  was scheduled between the Chinese president and President Obama about American allegations of Chinese hacking of American security systems; the Snowden leaks of American cyberhacking undermined the credibility of Obama’s charge against the Chinese. The leaks also revealed that the U.S. spied on its European allies, which further angered the international community.

3. NSA can keep and disseminate information collected inadvertently and can keep this information for up to five years.

There were also leaks which revealed the government’s sloppy background checks in hiring personnel in high level security positions.  The leaks showed that although there were some questionable items on Snowden’s resume, no one bothered to check them out before hiring him in a high level security job.

Consequence: The leaks reveal that the NSA can keep and make use of inadvertently gathered information on U.S. citizens for up to five years without a warrant.  The information contradicts Obama’s statements that the NSA cannot access data on US citizens without a warrant.

The revelation of the NSA sloppiness in its hiring process also undermines public trust in the government’s security abilities.

4. Snowden has disseminated the rest of his files around the world. If something unforeseen happens to Snowden, he has made arrangements for the passwords to reach those with the files if he is unable to access them himself.

Consequence: The fact that he has made multiple copies of highly classified information has created tremendous unease and angst among U.S. officials, spiking fear that highly classified information could fall into the wrong hands.

5. The German newspaper, Der Spiegal, revealed that it had seen part of a 2010 document released by Snowden, showing that the NSA spied on European citizens, including EU officials.

Consequence: This latest revelation of U.S. spying, even on its closest allies, sparked a huge outcry among European countries.  It has created a breach in trust between the U.S. and its allies, and even prompted the German justice minister to compare the U.S. espionage with tactics used by Germany’s enemies during the “Cold War”.

ACLU: “Edward Snowden is a Whistleblower”

1. Identify at least two claims from the ACLU article to support his argument that Snowden is a whistleblower.

Emani: Used the definition of whistleblower to support the claim.

The definition of a whistleblower is one who reasonably believes there is evidence of any violation of any law ….or abuse of authority…(poses) specific danger to public safety.

Third Paragraph: No fewer than five lawsuits have been filed challenging the surveillance program Snowden exposed. Even the author of the Patriot Act was appalled by the things that were exposed in Snowden’s leaks.

Fourth Paragraph: Over a dozen bills have been introduced in Congress to narrow these public surveillance authorities and increase transparency….”

Sixth Paragraph: According to one of the framers of the Constitution, James Madison, a popular government without popular information is a “Prologue to a farce or a tragedy or both”. Michael German states that denying Americans this information through excessive secrecy or official deception is unjustifiable and illegal. In a democracy, laws should never be secret.

Why do you believe these claims are important for people to understand? Even the author of the Patriot Act was appalled at the extent to which his act was used to abuse the privacy of the American people - the very people  that the Act was supposed to protect.

The government will try to portray Snowden as a traitor in order to deflect attention away from its acts of illegality.