World News Korner

Edward Snowden's Christmas message.

Courtesy of Politico:

“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.

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