Hero or Traitor?

These last few weeks have been full of revelations due to the information released by Edward Snowden about the NSA’s capabilities to spy on essentially everyone, everywhere, whenever they want, and without a warrant.  Since he leaked this information the Federal government has charged Snowden with three counts of espionage: theft of government property, giving national defense information to someone without security clearance, and revealing classified information about “communications intelligence.”

Emotions are high and opinions are flying left and right over this issue. Some people call him a hero, some a traitor; most mainstream media outlets, in an effort to stay unbiased and not alienate anyone, are calling him “the leaker.” This is by no means a simple issue, the government has claimed that the information Snowden released has compromised intelligence sources and methods which could lead to agents being killed and future intelligence collection (for the sake of national security) damaged.

The question then arises, is the information that was leaked important enough to risk the consequences? If you aren’t clear on exactly that information was I’ll give you the basics. It is essentially this, the NSA (and who knows what other agencies) through their PRISM program have the ability to (and do) collect nearly any type of data they want from your computer, phone, tablet, and anything else that uses the internet. They can see who you’ve talked to, where you are/have been, what you type into your search engine, who and what you text, and much more. On top of this the NSA is currently constructing a facility in Utah that will have 5 zettabytes of storage, 5 zettabytes is equivalent to 5 billion terabytes.  That is a lot of storage space to fill with data on our personal lives.

I have little interest in being “politically correct” so I am going to just come out and say it. I believe he did the right thing in leaking this information.  [Please note:  This opinion is that of the author, not necessarily that of Eberly Systems.] The idea of our government collecting and using this data, and on top of that blatantly lying to congress about it, is deeply unsettling to me. Benjamin Franklin put it the best when he said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” There is a thin line between the reality of needing to protect ones citizen’s and invading their privacy, this is well over that line.

Snowden is now on the run, he was in China for a little and then moved on to Russia. The government attempted to have him extradited from there but thankfully Russia said no. He has now left there and is rumored to be somewhere in Ecuador, possibly seeking asylum. Well you now know my opinion, so what do you think? Hero or traitor? Is the government within their rights to gather and use this information for “national security” or is this a gross breakdown of our rights to freedom and privacy? We’d love to know your thoughts, leave a comment explaining your opinion.