About five years ago, Edward Snowden leaked to journalists a mini-database containing around ten thousand highly classified documents. The top secret contents revealed the scope and scale of mass surveillance by the US government and its allies. Thus, the world learned for the first time that the National Security Agency (NSA) in addition to massively collecting telephone metadata from millions of Americans, had installed backdoors in internet cables, was constantly developing hacking tools, and was trying to break every encryption we use to secure our data. Then, Silicon Valley was accused of knowingly participating in the PRISM data collection program. And the revelations from Edward Snowden did not stop. Journalists published incredible stories highlighting government abuse and unethical intrusions, which according to Snowden were the least of the NSA database in Hawaii. Five years later, little progress seems to have been made. Aside from a law that does not reduce the amount of domestic collection of phone records from Americans, the government continues to conduct surveillance on foreigners (and Americans) under the same legal framework that existed before the leaks, after US lawmakers restored most of the government’s powers over surveillance with little to no discussion. We are back to the point where a catch-all executive order gives the US government unlimited powers to collect data. As for Silicon Valley tech companies, who wanted to regain the trust of their users after the leaks were published, we could say that not much has changed overall… Of course, to be fair, some things have changed for the better. Today, we have end-to-end encryption on almost all of our devices.
After the revelation that the NSA had tapped into the private fiber optic cables connecting Yahoo and Google’s data centers, companies began encrypting everything. Even companies that hadn’t reported the leak, like Microsoft, began proactively encrypting their cables in an effort to shut the door on spies. Encryption forced the NSA and its allies to knock on companies’ front doors with warrants, rather than trying to install backdoors. Google, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo all began publishing transparency reports detailing how much data they handed over to the intelligence community. Today, transparency reports are adopted by almost all companies, and while they’re not perfect, they do offer a glimpse into the legal requirements that target user data. What hasn’t changed at all, however, is how private industry handles its users’ data. Tech companies continue to collect data very aggressively to serve ads and serve third-party interests. Many companies are largely unregulated since they are only marginally controlled by law, which gives them unlimited space to manage our personal data. Private spying, data collection, profiling of voters and product buyers is paying off and lawmakers have not reacted to this day. From all of the above, we can say that Edward Snowden's leaks did not save us, but they caused a cultural shift. We are trying harder to control our personal information. The leaks were also the catalyst that tech companies needed to add more encryption. However, call it irony (or capitalism) although tech companies have tried to cut off the secret services from our data, they continue to collect it with undiminished interest. So the next showdown of the public will probably be with Silicon Valley. ________________________________
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