What has Edward Snowden Really Done?

First and foremost, what most people know Snowden for doing is revealing to everyone that the American government has ceased all phone calling records (time, location, duration, and sender/receiver). This caused a colossal stirrup in society. Even though the purpose of gathering all phone records was for National Security, a group of people feel that this is a massive invasion of their privacy. Would you rather have personal privacy, or the the most knowledgeable protection possible? Seems like an easy answer to me; then again, I am not a person who thinks that the government is interested in my personal relations life.

To piggy-back on the "personal privacy" issue, Snowden also revealed another privacy violation. He disclosed our PRISM program that allows government officials to gather records of emails, search engine history, and file transfers that could potentially be connected to dangerous foreign affairs. I highlight "foreign affairs" because that is precisely what the government is looking at. They want information on our potential enemies, not our harmless citizens sending lovey-dovey messages.

A really interesting thing that would have been better kept a secret, was a tool that the NSA uses called the "Boundless Informant". This allows the NSA to keep track of metadata that the USA gathers about all of the countries in the world. The Boundless Informant sorts through all of the information quick enough so we know if there is an immanent threat present in a country. The green is the least likely to be targeted for surveillance, while the darker red colors are more to be watched.

The fourth thing that Snowden did was he told China that we have been tapping into their computer systems in mainland China since 2009. This is obviously problematic that a country knows that we have been interested in their information for the past five years. While China has not found evidence that we have been hacking their computers, it still puts us on their radar as deceptive.

Not only did Snowden reveal that we are spying on potential enemies, but also that we are listening in on our allies. This could end up being problematic because our friends, could become just the opposite.

Ask yourself: "Is it really worth all the commotion caused by Snowden; is personal privacy more important than national security?"