Depending on who you ask, June 2013 was either the beginning of the end of unethical U.S. government surveillance or the time a traitor jeopardized the future of U.S. intelligence. However, few people will deny the widespread impact former National Security Agency contractor and current international fugitive Edward Snowden had on the way people understand digital privacy.
According to the latest survey from Pew Research Center, nearly three out of five of people who heard about the revelations think spying on U.S. citizens is “unacceptable.” The power of the findings cuts across party lines, with Republicans and Democrats equally skeptical of data-monitoring programs.
Before Snowden blew the lid off of NSA surveillance, you could make fun of people who thought the government was spying on them. It was socially acceptable to deride so-called “tin foil hat” conspiracy theorists as paranoid schizophrenics who probably also thought the Bush administration staged 9/11 as an excuse to go to war with Iraq.
The tin foil fedoras are everywhere now. The Pew poll found nearly 20 percent of respondents changed the way they email, search Google and use Twitter and Facebook. Presumably they’re worried about ending up on some government watch list for looking up Quran verses or reading the work of avowed anarchist Emma Goldman.
This chilling effect is the most terrifying consequence of the Snowden leaks. People are voluntarily limiting their intellectual curiosity and choosing to write emails in a way that makes them seem less threatening because they know they’re being watched.
Digital privacy can no longer claim to be a tech-hipster concern. Journalists like Glenn Greenwald, who broke the initial stories from Snowden’s leaks, are invited to talk on CNN. That never would’ve happened if Edward Snowden hadn’t taken digital privacy mainstream.
This man — excuse me — this American hero is currently holed up somewhere in Russia attempting to secure a fair trial in the U.S. or asylum in Switzerland. He doesn’t deserve a fair trial. He deserves a presidential pardon, the Medal of Freedom and an apology for the allegations leveled at him.
Government overreach into our lives has become so widespread and accepted in post-9/11 America that people have breezed over the fact that government officials have systematically mislead and outright lied to the American public about the existence of and scope of NSA programs.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden when he said the NSA does not collect any information on millions of Americans. The former Director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, lied 14 times about whether the NSA had the technical capability to intercept emails in the U.S.
At least Alexander had the decency to step down from his post after lying to Congress and the American people. Clapper is still in office, banning his employees from speaking with reporters without authorization. Presumably, lying under oath leads you to be a bit cautious about keeping the rest of your lies from slipping out.
If you think the U.S. is justified in spying on the emails, calls, texts and nearly anything else digitally transmitted without any reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed, then I suggest you go to China.
Don’t worry, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.
James Richards is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from New Orleans. You can reach him on Twitter @JayEllRichy.