“Recently, we learned our governments working on concert have created a system of world-wide mass surveillance, watching every thing we do,” Snowden said a video for the British Channel 4.
Snowden said “1984” author George Orwell had warned us of such surveillance.
“The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us - are nothing compared to what we have available today,” Snowden says on Channel 4 which has been broadcast alternative Christmas messages for many years. “We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.”
Clad in a black blazer and pink button down shirt, Snowden continued, saying that a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy.
“They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought,” Snowden said.
He added that the conversation occurring now will determine the level of trust citizens can place in their technology and governments.
“Together we can find a better balance. End mass surveillance. Remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel asking is always cheaper than spying.”
I think like a lot of you have had a hard time with my conflicted feelings over Edward Snowden.
However whether the respect the methods that he used or not we can no longer ignore the fact that what he did will have a significant impact on how our country, and really ALL countries, gather intelligence.
I have talked to a couple of my own intelligence gatherers and the majority of them see nothing wrong with how the NSA gathers data, and that until there is significant proof they have misused that information there is no reason to ask for a change.
I am not quite so ready to give up all of my privacy, nor do I think that gathering everybody's phone phone numbers, e-mails, and online information will do anything really to keep us safe.
The very least that can be said about Edward Snowden is that he pulled back the veil of secrecy surrounding how our own government spies on us, and the most that can be said is that he will be remembered as a hero.
Either way, ultimately he accomplished what he set out to do.
Impeach Obama
ReplyDeleteEnd his surveillance state
Dumb@ss, you think this hasn't been going on for years before he took office?
DeleteYes, it's all Obama. Meanwhile, since he took office, there has not been one successful attack on this country. Not one. And where were you when Bush was expanding the Patriot Act and liberals were howling about privacy? Where were you exactly? Hiding behind 'he kept us safe?' Or, gee, a Republican would never not get a warrant when he needed information...which Bush did every single day. God. Grow up, 2:43. Snowden merely pointed out what many of us already knew. I do not carry a cell phone. I do not allow constant location monitoring with my IPod. I turn it off if I'm not using it. And frankly, Snowden is wrong. Our kids can always have private thoughts and moments, just like we can. We have to teach them to think, to dream, and to be careful with their nifty devices. No one is telling me how to think or when to think. Come to think of it, I wish someone could..maybe the RW would make sense occasionally then.
DeleteObviously, 'Yahoo' at 2:43 PM has forgotten about J. Edgar Hoover. Troll-wit.
DeleteM from MD
"... most that can be said is that he will be remembered as a hero".
ReplyDeleteThat is until some group launches an attack in this country because we were no allowed to monitor the phone numbers sent between people who would attack this country.
Snowden is not a hero, he is a betrayer of his country.
P.S. No one is listen to your phone calls. Of what relevance would some inane call between some silly girl and her equally silly boyfriend?
Snowden is no hero. Anyone would care about any "Christmas message" from him can ditch the reindeer antlers off their head don the tin foil hat.
DeleteHe is no hero - He sat through years of this with Bush - strange how it became just so bad when the blah guy became President - and the world loved him.
DeleteSnowden is causing harm in many countries throughout the world - only thing they have in common is that they support President Obama.
2006 the same Edward Snowden who loved his surveillance job with NSA said " should anyone leak information their balls should be shot off". Wow 7 years later he stole documents and offered them for sale to China and Russia. Now without the money he says he did this for the American people. Russia laughed and offered him to stay to train Russian students on how the US uses NSA.
Delete
DeleteIt is interesting how Snowden is lecturing about privacy while he is working at Yandex, Russia's version of Google, in a country that DOES NOT HAVE A WORD FOR PRIVACY http://blog.properrussian.com/.... (In Russia, if you say you want privacy, you say "I want to be alone", the article also talks about the missing word 'tolerant' in the Russian language...very interesting).
Snowden jumped from the pot into the fire. He is reckless with what he has learned, and I am sure his knowledge will be used in ways that he doesn't expect.
<“We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.” <
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want the government to know where you are, don't carry a cell phone around with you. the government isn't requiring anyone use cell phones so the can know where you are.
It's also a little far fetched to say that children today won't know what privacy is. The more data someone (say, a government) gathers, the more they have to rifle through. I really doubt there will be records of comings and goings - unless you CHOOSE, with no government influence, to use your credit cards, turnpike sensors,
And how stupid is he? For the most part, the government doesn't care how we feel! It's not in the business of empathy. It's in the business of administration, and fighting crime, and terrorism, building an infrastructure, etc.
The government DOES NOT WATCH everything we do. It has access to records that can figure out a lot of what we have done, which is available when circumstances warrant it. You/we can argue where that line should be drawn, but that's A LOT different than the government KNOWING EVERYTHING WE DO.
And much of the data collection isn't done by the government. Some is. Street cameras is one. But phone records are the phone companies. Most cameras by paid for by businesses. Can the government use them? sure, in the proper circumstances. But it's not the government's fault they are available, and the rules of evidence weren't changed to either protect, or invade, citizen's rights because of such cameras.
If Snowden wanted to be effective he could have gone to Congress. or a reputable journalist. If he threatened to do what he did, someone would have listened. He didn't. He's a crusader who inflicted maximum damage in order to be seen for his crusading.
Lucy
>>He's a crusader who inflicted maximum damage in order to be seen for his crusading.
DeleteOh, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, you are so right! And you phrased that magnificently. Thank you.
And he is inflicting damage...quite gleefully...along with his partner in crime, that slimy Greenwald guy, who'd sell out anyone for a buck.
And curiously enough, they're BOTH anti-Obama jerks. Hmmmm, who woulda thought? Wonder where those 'patriots' were during the Bush years?
Curious if anyone who defends NSA's illegal and wholesale destruction of our privacy, would have defended it between 01/2001 - 01/2009? What say you, DetroitSam?
ReplyDelete99% of congress supported the Bush administration after 9/11 - maybe you didn't notice? One of the few who did not was Barack Obama - but the truth escapes those who do not like the color of his skin.
DeleteThat doesn't answer my question, TS. Which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the color of anyone's skin. And everything to do about blatant political hypocrisy. Apparently the current president is fully supportive of the previous president's policies, including all of its criminal activities. So what he supported for the few years he was one of 50 members of the Senate during the Bush years is no longer relevant.
DeleteSorry, no - it has everything to do with the hate directed against the President - because blah
DeleteI think he committed treason and should be brought back to the US, put on trial and shot or hung! He is NOT our friend or a true American!
ReplyDelete2:43 What a ridiculous thing to say! President Obama (to you!) is doing nothing different than what has been done for years - to include Republican POTUS.
ReplyDeleteThings are worse in our world and I'm sure that even tougher things should be done to keep our country safe.
What's next? A New Years message on the value of life from George Zimmerman?
ReplyDeleteSnowden is working for the Kock brothers. Bank on it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not doing anything wrong why should you care? And BTW Gryphen, if your "intelligence gatherers" are worth their salt then the Trig thing would have been broken and common knowledge. Instead, Mrs. Palin keep winning.
ReplyDeleteYou should care because it is violating your constitutional rights. And just because you like the current occupant of the Oval Office while your rights are being violated doesn't mean you're going to like the NEXT guy who supports violating your rights.
Delete6:02pm
DeleteWho says I like the current guy in the Whitehouse? I've never liked a single one of them and am not really down with any sort of government oversight, including taxes. However, surveillance and taxes ARE a fact of life so get used to it. I have.
This mode of operation has been going on a long time. President Obama isn't doing it for the 'first' time - Republican presidents have also used the same methods.
DeleteI truthfully don't care, because I have nothing to hide.
Yes I'm concerned about government spying and yes, I read 1984 as well as Animal Farm and they did affect me deeply.
ReplyDeleteBut let's also consider...
Just damn near everybody has a cell phone (which, by the way, is a GPS tracking device) and they photograph everything.
Constantly.
Including you.
So it's not just the government invading our privacy -
we invade each other's privacy.
...and gladly allow each other to do it.
And speaking of voluntarily...
Most of us post EVERY
FUCKING
DETAIL
of our lives on facebook, twitter, tumblr, et. al.
for all to see.
Not that it makes it OK or anything.
I'm just sayin...
Why don't you just cut the chase? Bottom line: it's OK when the guy you voted for is in the White House and is not attempting to stop it. Get back to us when a rightwing Republican is in the WH again, and let us know how you feel about it then.
DeleteI thought President Obama did call him a traitor and called for him being brought back to the US (from Russia) but Putin wouldn't agree.
DeleteHello Randall, that's exactly why many of us do not Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr and why we post Anon on Disqus. Many of us use disposable emails and even then we are linked by our IP unless we pay for a floating IP. Fact is, if anyone wants to listen or look at what you are doing or saying then just make sure you're not doing or saying anything that can be used against you for any reason.
DeleteMy own opinion is he's no hero, not by a long shot. He had a chain of command and a channel for whistleblowers to get the information to the right people, instead, he takes who knows how much information and brings it to our country's enemies.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not as "Orwellian" as he's making it out to be. People willingly give up their personal information when they sign up for a credit card or a store's "bonus card" without batting an eyelash. Target was just the victim of one of the biggest hack jobs, and their parking lots are full, and folks are lined up in droves with their credit cards ready because they offered an extra ten percent off one shopping order as a "gee, we fucked up protecting your information, hey spend a dollar on your credit card, we'll charge interest AND we'll give you a dime back, for the inconvenience!"
Hey, Anonymous3:09 PM
ReplyDelete>>I think he committed treason and should be brought back to the US, put on trial and shot or hung! He is NOT our friend or a true American!
I couldn't agree more. Not only that, he's a little coward. He can't even stand up for his own so-called 'convictions' but instead he lobs bombs at a distance in countries that are NOT our friend, uses a narcissistic, demented, arrogant, smarmy messenger, Greenfuck, to send his messages.
He's a thief, a liar, a traitor, a criminal, and a media whore. There is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING that he stands for. He has exposed himself as the fiend that he is, running away to dictorships and then carrying on about not wanting to live in 'surveillance society'.
Who the fuck is he kidding. He should be shot. Between the eyes. Dead center. Make no mistake, history will NOT see him as anything other than a pennyante blip on the radar. He is a shameful, traitorous 'American' who I'm happy to know has been stripped of his passport and is STUCK in Russia...couldn't have turned out better.
Except him being hung for his crimes.
Agree!!!
DeleteCheck out a 60 minutes broadcast about NSA and "Echelon", a data and phone gathering program that spied on not only foreign countries but on members of our US Congress beginning approximately in 2000. The NSA has been spying on 'everyone' for years and some of its employees have revealed publicly that they listened to private conversations (especially if they were erotic in nature) in addition to listening to foreign diplomats and suspected terrorists. I'm glad that Snowden blew the whistle on this Orwellian agency. Circumventing the law, claiming it's in the name of keeping us safe, is not only illegal it is wrong. "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin,
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin would eat up the anti-Snowden repsonses in this thread with a spoon -- if there was a teabagger in the White House.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be a hoot know what they have on Todd and Sarah Palin? McCain probably knows more about them than anyone!!
ReplyDeleteMr. I'm The Most Important Person In the World's next big pronnouncement: Aliens throughout the entire universe from all planets and other universes are spying on you!
ReplyDelete