OUGD503 - Responsive [SB1] - Monotype - Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and former contractor for the United States Government. Snowden released a plethora of files copied from NSA (National Security Agency) and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) into the internet sphere. This sparked outrage from the public as it showed how secretive governments can be, and just how invasive our governments are towards us. Specifically in the UK, there have been collaborations with companies to create "trapdoors" into their systems in order for the GCHQ to eavesdrop on the UK public. However, until Snowden released these files, this was completely unknown and still to this day remains largely unnoticed. My campaign aims to bring subjects like these to light and although controversial, I believe the public has the right to know when their private lives are being surveyed.

$250 million is spent on covert surveillance by the Americans every year, which is funded fully through the taxpayer, to spy on the taxpayer. This concept if widely known I believe would cause shock and awe at how a government can be openly proud about freedom, while providing limited ability to be free. The counter-argument for this is for means of "counter-terrorism", but surely an invasion of privacy this deep calls into question how far governments are willing to go in order to prevent terrorism, and if there are ulterior motives involved. I personally believe there is a fine line between surveillance and breaching information without consent. 

If this information were to be more widespread, it could propose a change in how internet companies are governed and call into question how much information the government needs to be able to intercept in order to keep our country safe. Below is one of many slides obtained by Snowden that start to explain how deep the roots of data-manipulation go in the digital age and how alarming it is to see the shroud of secrecy around the whole subject.