I have seen this discussion evolve from the early 90&#x27;s from overwhelmingly freedom loving, rational and logical to now scaremongering, feeble justifications and often just self importance.<p>Isn&#x27;t it time to have something like the Hippocratic Oath that commits developers to some ethical standards and not engage in activities that may have negative consequences for humanity in general.<p>The problem with Snowden is not what he has done but what thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of others have not. And the way the freedom loving media, the EU and the US has treated him apart from being shameful doesn&#x27;t help potential whistle blowers.<p>Given what we now know about the level of sophistication and ever growing number programs at play there needs to be more activism against the groups and individuals who enable this. And also more oversight of the level of involvement of security agencies and other vested interests in open source.