Big Brother Watching?
Former spy agency contractor, Edward Snowden’s flight from the US a month after he leaked details of top secret surveillance programmes, and his pursuit by American authorities to have him extradited have dominated the news around the pale-faced whistleblower. Now lodged somewhere in Moscow airport’s transit lounge, after the US invalidated his passport, Snowden’s fate appears to be in the hands of governments in Ecuador, Venezuela, Russia and Cuba.
Commentators, analysts and polls are measuring the swing in public support for Snowden, with suggestions that he keep the pressure and spotlight on his revelations on the domestic snooping programme that shocked America and the world. Whistleblowers in the past, like Snowden, have had to face the full brunt of personality assaults from the establishment and Snowden has had his share, being dubbed a traitor and narcissist, while the public still see him as a national hero.
Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong and his long wait in the Moscow airport are making the breaking news in this David v/s Goliath battle. Away from the hype of his life on the run however and the intricacies of his extradition, the documents leaked to the Guardian and Washington Post have fueled a furious debate. The investigations the Snowden leaks have prompted go far beyond anything most people imagined.
Following up the leads, the Guardian has exposed a mind-boggling amount of surveillance conducted on its citizens and foreigners, that has shocked the world. That security agencies, shortly after 9/11 reportedly initiated programmes to access daily phone logs of millions of Americans made within the country and overseas, including location, duration, and timing of the calls, besides putting these through sophisticated analytical tools is one matter. Additionally, secret court orders approved a bulk collection of internet metadata of citizens and non citizens ~ that went on in its blanket form until 2011 and continued for specific targets until recently, including two years into the next administration after George W. Bush’s.
The revelations brought out that the digital surveillance tracked IP addresses, the ‘to’ and ‘from’ and ‘bcc’ addresses and other transactional information of users ~ that some analysts liken to “reading a person’s personal diary” ~ by tracking his/her mind, what they are reading, the discussion forums they are on, et al. Within the US, Snowden’s leaks have prompted Congressional committee hearings and put the Obama administration on the backfoot, for continuing with parts of the programme even after a Democratic government captured the White House. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit, though here in India the Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL seeking government action against Internet companies for sharing Internet data from India with US security agencies.
Though much of the media attention has in recent times focused on Snowden’s life on the run, the deeper issues of privacy that he risked his liberty to reveal, will continue to reverberate for a long time to come.
