Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations
Years ago, when I interviewed at places that did USG-related work, the stuff I heard about that I <i>didn&#x27;t have to sign an NDA to hear</i>, scared me enough that I knew Snowden-scale stuff was entirely within the capabilities of the US Govt. I didn&#x27;t realize they would use it against us just blatantly in direct violation of every law put in place to prevent it, though.<p>I think the lesson I learned from the Snowden leaks is, if the government <i>can</i> do it, the government <i>will</i> do it - if not now, one day soon. That&#x27;s... kind of a value-changing, life-changing realization. That no law will stop a government from doing what it wants. We can&#x27;t stop it. But what we can do is install enough peep-holes (transparency) that when it happens, we&#x27;re more likely to find out about it, so we can do something about it.