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Whistleblowing is the act of disclosing to the authorities or the public the immoral, illegal, or incorrect information or activities of an organization. The persons who practice whistleblowing are called whistleblowers and are submitted to some controversial opinions. This is the case of one of the most famous whistleblowers of this decade who is Edward Snowden. After he revealed some highly classified information about the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 related to the US government’s surveillance program, his act is considered as a heroic act for some, and a betrayal, even a crime, for others. This essay will weigh the pros and cons of this disclosure realized by Edward Snowden.
Delving into the pros first, this act of disclosure has allowed to denounce the mass surveillance programs of the government to all the population. Indeed, the release of these documents has made the public, the authorities and the companies reconsider the safety of the cloud technology. This act has triggered some issues related to individual privacy on the Internet that people were not aware of. By leaking these documents about National Security Agency mass surveillance, Internet users, not only from USA, but also from other countries, became aware of they were being watched by the US government through their electronics devices, regardless of what they were doing on the Internet. Thanks to this leak, people from other countries started to be conscious that even some American electronic technologies like software, phones, or even computers could have some ‘doorway’ to allow American intelligence to collect some data about them. For instance, as a result of this leak realized by Edward Snowden, a survey by the Harris Poll in April 2014 reported that the number of Americans using Internet for online shopping, banking and emailing decreased. Moreover, this disclosure was also such a catalyst that allows the government and companies to take care of the privacy and the opinion of Internet users. The companies which use the Internet reinforced their security systems to protect their customers. Most of the technological companies decided to pay attention and invest in encryption features and the safety of cloud technology. For example, since this denunciation, Apple decided to use a system where the data of the customer using an Apple device will be stored on the device itself, instead of being stocked on Apple’s iCloud service, so that they couldn’t have access to the personal data of their customers. Thanks to this disclosure, US President Barak Obama also announced on 9th of August 2013 a reform concerning the intelligence surveillance programs in order to reconcile Americans safety and their privacy, which stated that the National Security Agency should no longer gather some call records from the US citizens or companies without a court approval. So, this act has allowed the population to be aware of what they are exposed to on the Internet, and it forced American companies and the American government to take new resolutions about the privacy of Internet users. This disclosure can be considered as a successful whistleblowing act because it at least made Americans aware of this privacy issues on the Internet.
With respect to the cons, though this disclosure allows a new era for the cloud technology, where all people are aware of the privacy issues, this act of Edward Snowden remains a theft of the US government properties which threatens the country’s national security. This act revealed to everyone, regardless of their intent, one of the systems of national protection in the USA. As a matter of fact, some organizations, such as al-Qaeda, decided to review their encryption methods, after the release, so that American intelligence could not have access to their data. This jeopardized the ability of the US to protect the population from some jihadists attacks. In addition, Snowden stole what could be called like ‘state secrets’, and as a result of that, he has been charged by the government of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He betrayed the National Security Agency and broke the trust they had in him, exposing these secrets, and became intentionally or not considered as a spy sent by other countries like Russia, where he has currently found an asylum. Unfortunately, this disclosure made other nations around the world become more and more suspicious about US electronic devices, afraid of being spied by US intelligence, and it created a very big loss in the computing industry, of more than thirty-five billion US dollars, according to a study of the Information Technology and Innovation, published in August 2013. Thus, this act can be qualified under the law as a crime, and it even reassesses the real causes of this leak.
To conclude, this leak realized by Edward Snowden is double-edged, because it is at the same time a very heroic act which shows the people that the US government was violating their privacy using one of most popular technology of the decade, but it is also a robbery of some US government properties which endangered the US security. Personally, I believe that Edward Snowden is a whistleblower. Despite the fact that he is legally culpable of some crimes against the US, he is ethically unguilty because, he refused to participate in this unjust masquerade of the US government by leaking this information and putting his life in danger.
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