Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance
"<i>Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.</i>"<p>Thoughtful people brave enough to blow whistles seem to be the greatest check on what looks like a secret, unaccountable, illegal centralization of power based on lies from the top of the government on down.<p>Many powerful people will see him otherwise. I shudder to think of what will become of him, though I'm sure we'll see it played out in headlines.<p>Whistle-blowers are not our only defense, however, as we all have power too, for example contributing to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):<p>"<i>His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.</i>"<p>My personal favorite is the Freedombox project: <a href="https://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/learn" rel="nofollow">https://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/learn</a><p>EFF: <a href="https://www.eff.org" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org</a><p>(By the way, I don't know about anybody else, but for the first time I can think of, I'm seriously concerned about the consequences of posting support for somebody like this online. I don't know how things will play out years down the road and who will do what with this information.)<p>EDIT: Followed up by posting the above on my blog -- <a href="http://joshuaspodek.com" rel="nofollow">http://joshuaspodek.com</a> -- based on comments below.