Ten years ago, a group of journalists including documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, blogger Glenn Greenwald, and a Guardian reporter, flew from New York to Hong Kong to meet an individual claiming to be a spy with a trove of secret documents. This individual turned out to be Edward Snowden, a contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA) who had become disillusioned by the scale of intrusion into privacy following the 9/11 attacks. He decided to become a whistleblower and shared thousands of classified documents with the journalists, leading to the biggest leak in intelligence history.
Despite the widespread public outrage resulting from Snowden’s disclosures, the U.S. and U.K. introduced limited reforms, and courts ruled in favor of enhanced privacy. Furthermore, the knowledge of the ease with which phones can be hacked and the vulnerability of electronic communications has become mainstream. Snowden’s disclosure of the PRISM program also resulted in Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook ushering in end-to-end encryption years earlier than planned.
Not everyone viewed Snowden’s actions positively, however. Some quarters believed that the public-interest argument is outweighed by the damage the leaks caused. For instance, operations had to be halted, and human intelligence operations had to be closed for fear of information analyzed by other countries.
Snowden himself continues to live in exile in Moscow and remains in contact with the original reporting team that met him in Hong Kong. He believes that his disclosures have had a positive impact, as end-to-end encryption has become a rare sight. However, he acknowledges that privacy remains under assault from technological advances.
In conclusion, the Snowden affair has sparked an ongoing global debate about technology, surveillance, and liberty that continues to this day and will frame the debate about AI and new technology that are emerging.
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