Should We Heed Snowden’s Warnings?

The technology industry is receiving warnings from Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified documents revealing a network of government surveillance. Snowden asserts that it is time to focus on protecting the privacy of the industry’s customers and users. Snowden, who currently faces charges in the United States of violating the Espionage Act, has sought asylum in Russia. However, he continues to actively (through the use of anonymity software and other covert techniques designed to elude authorities) speak out against governments’ abuse of the Internet and use of unwarranted surveillance – and people are lining up to listen.

Snowden warns that the internet has become “adversarial” and developers must step-up and help fix the problem. Snowden encourages individuals to demand the right to have technical standards. Specifically, he argues that people with the skill and ability need to take steps that make encompassing surveillance significantly more costly and difficult for governments to avoid detection. He believes that a government agency’s ability to perform large sweeps of data on the Internet would be thwarted if it were more secure. He also stresses that it is not his intent to inhibit the government’s ability to protect its citizens; but rather he seeks only to hold the government accountable for its actions.

Snowden’s challenge is aimed at developers, cryptographers, and privacy activists to create better methods for protecting the privacy of all technology users. He claims that tools such as encryption and other similar measures are the only means for maintaining an Internet that can be trusted.

Although he faces serious charges and may be considered a traitor by many, Snowden believes that by leaking the documents and revealing the government’s unwarranted surveillance activity, he was defending the U.S. Constitution and those individuals it was designed to protect.

If you have any questions about the topics discussed or would like to address your company’s data protection strategies, please contact Fernando M. Pinguelo or the Scarinci Hollenbeck attorney with whom you work. To learn more about data privacy and security, visit eWhiteHouseWatch – Where Law, Technology, & Politics Collide (www.eWHWblog.com.