The campaign to roll back mass National Security Agency surveillance has reached a critical point. Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the supposed legal justification for the NSA's big phone records snooping program, is set to expire on June 1. There's a huge fight in Congress over whether it should be reauthorized, replaced with a new law, or simply just left to die.
Edward Snowden , the leaker who revealed the NSA program in the first place, has some pretty strong feelings about all of this. On May 21, he did a Q&A session on Reddit alongside the American Civil Liberties Union's Jameel Jaffer. The discussion was an extended, impassioned, and sometimes surprisingly funny case against the American surveillance state. It's also a window into Snowden's really intense online fan club.
Here are nine of the most informative answers from the Q&A.
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Chiwebdevjsx: My sister works for a three letter agency and whenever I try to have a conversations with her about [surveillance], her reply is always, "if you knew what we knew on the inside you'd know it was different"... What would be your approach to talking with her about the dangers of mass data collection?
Edward Snowden: I think the central issue is to point out that regardless of the results, the ends (preventing a crime) do not justify the means (violating the rights of the millions whose private records are unconstitutionally seized and analyzed).
Some might say "I don't care if they violate my privacy; I've got nothing to hide." Help them understand that they are misunderstanding the fundamental nature of human rights. Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. Full story...
Related posts:
Edward Snowden , the leaker who revealed the NSA program in the first place, has some pretty strong feelings about all of this. On May 21, he did a Q&A session on Reddit alongside the American Civil Liberties Union's Jameel Jaffer. The discussion was an extended, impassioned, and sometimes surprisingly funny case against the American surveillance state. It's also a window into Snowden's really intense online fan club.
Here are nine of the most informative answers from the Q&A.
(...)
Chiwebdevjsx: My sister works for a three letter agency and whenever I try to have a conversations with her about [surveillance], her reply is always, "if you knew what we knew on the inside you'd know it was different"... What would be your approach to talking with her about the dangers of mass data collection?
Edward Snowden: I think the central issue is to point out that regardless of the results, the ends (preventing a crime) do not justify the means (violating the rights of the millions whose private records are unconstitutionally seized and analyzed).
Some might say "I don't care if they violate my privacy; I've got nothing to hide." Help them understand that they are misunderstanding the fundamental nature of human rights. Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. Full story...
Related posts:
- John Oliver's interview with Edward Snowden on govt surveillance and...
- EU: Don’t use Facebook if you want to keep the NSA away from your data...
- Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins Oscar...
- Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras: the true story behind his NSA leaks...
- Distracted, diverted and insulated from the grim reality of the police state...
- USA spent $136 billion on spying in two years...
- Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters...
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