How has Edward Snowden changed our view of privacy, technology and governments?

What is it about?

Edward Snowden disclosed information that made us radically revise our view of the threats to personal privacy that result from what we do online. Government exploitation of digital technology as an intelligence and surveillance tool was shown to be far more widespread than most people expected, and sometimes with the most slender of justifications. Protections people may have expected under the law (for example, the principles of "necessity and proportionality" when intruding on citizens' private lives) were shown to have been widely disregarded, or ineffective.

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Why is it important?

Pre-Snowden, most people concerned about online privacy probably viewed commercial exploitation of data as the main threat, and probably regarded governments and legislation as the factors most likely to protect their privacy. Post-Snowden, government actions appear to be a much greater privacy threat than anticipated, and the legal protections less effective than hoped. Because government activities are now more widely perceived as a threat to privacy (even in supposedly benevolent liberal democracies), governments should face greater scrutiny when they call for restrictions on: - online content, - strong encryption, - anonymous/pseudonymous access to online services.

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