305 - Edward Snowden: Hero, Traitor, or Both?

Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Off and on from 2006 to 2012, Snowden had worked as a CIA analyst, a subcontractor for the NSA, and several other positions that gave him access to classified NSA information that enabled him to see the true scope of how the US was surveilling its own citizens. Does leaking those docs to the press in 2013 make him a traitor? Or does it make him a hero who opened the eyes of the American public to the dangerous and unconstitutional surveillance our government has been clandestinely carrying out for years? I was familiar with Edward Snowden before this week, and the gist of what he did, but I truly didn't realize the scope of the surveillance and the amount of private data gathered on US citizens who were not accused of any crimes. Are you okay with agents working on behalf of the US government going through your private text messages whenever they want for whatever reason? Emails? Looking through your photos? Combing through your internet browsing history? Monitoring your GPS positioning to determine your travel patterns? Are you okay with Big Brother watching you? If you're not, too bad, because it's already happening. It's BEEN happening for years. This is what Snowden exposed, and he exposed it because it's wildly unethical. The fight for privacy is important because it's a fight for freedom. Is possibly allowing the government to make your existence a little safer worth losing so much of your freedom? We got an interesting one today.
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