Steve Jones - SSC Editor (7/28/2014)

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Jeff Moden (7/28/2014)

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djackson 22568 (7/28/2014)

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David.Poole (7/28/2014)

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And where does Edward Snowden fit into this piece?

IMO Snowden is a hero. He broke the law in order to expose our government's illegal violation of every US citizen's rights. He chose to suffer the consequences knowing it was the only way to expose the abuse, while also recognizing we (our population) are too stupid to do anything about it.

IMO the person referenced in this thread is simply an idiot. Violating the law in order to force a company to do the right thing is different in that he had other options yet chose the method that was easiest. Snowden didn't have any options at all, and made up his own option to help the greater good.

Interesting take on that. Personnally, I feel that his actions put a lot more people at risk that what he "saved".

We can certainly debate that, Mr. Moden, but I suspect that is not true. It's the view of many people that fundamentally dislike exposure and want secrecy in government/military dealings.

I'd agree those are important, but Mr. Snowden showed many abuses, many of which continue today. Far, far too often, I'd say the fruits of surveillance efforts were unnecessary for security.

For those potential problems involving security, both Mr. Snowden and the Guardian attempted to work with the NSA to redact problem data.