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USA Today Names Edward Snowden Tech Person of the Year

Posted by Unknown on from the things-to-do-before-you're-thirty dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from the USA Today tech column: "...But until a lone information-technology contractor named Edward Snowden leaked a trove of National Security Agency documents to the media this summer, we didn't know just how much we'd surrendered. Now that we do, our nation can have a healthy debate — out in the open, as a democracy should debate — about how good a bargain we got in that exchange. For facilitating that debate, at great risk to his own personal liberty, Snowden is this column's technology person of the year for 2013."

13 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. USA Today by egr · · Score: 5, Informative

    And yet by the government he is named as traitor and fugitive.

    1. Re:USA Today by easyTree · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What are the corrupt power-mongering double-talking ghouls gonna do? "Oh yeah, we're the bad guy. Sue us" ?

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
    2. Re:USA Today by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      . . . meanwhile, all USA Today employees can be sure that their emails are being read and their phones tapped.

      . . . you have the right of speech in America . . . and now the NSA and the FBI have the right of free listen.

      Oh, and USA Today can expect a tough audit from the IRS next year.

      I'm guessing that 2014 will be the year of "The War On Surveillance" . . . but like all other "The War On" wars . . . it is doomed to be lost.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  2. If ever there was a "Conscience Award" ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Edward Snowden is a shoe in.

    Of the untold numbers of spooks working in / for NSA, Ed Snowden is the only one who has the conscience and the courage to reveal the dastardly unconstitutional secrets of the NSA.

    Thanks, Mr. Snowden, for what you have done for the country !

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:If ever there was a "Conscience Award" ... by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Of the untold numbers of spooks working in / for NSA, Ed Snowden is the only one who has the conscience and the courage to reveal the dastardly unconstitutional secrets of the NSA.

      Actually, two other guys did; William Binney and Thomas Drake. Unfortunately, they went through official channels, so they got harrassed and prosecuted by the government, and without the massive trove of documents Snowden exfiltrated, they were ignored and marginalized by the major media. Their experience is what convinced Snowden that he had no choice but to go outside.

      --
      Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
    2. Re:If ever there was a "Conscience Award" ... by maugle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The NSA is a spy agency by charter. Spies can and do go beyond the letter of the law in order to fulfill their mission of protecting their country from its enemies... it would be shocking if they didn't.

      This is America. Nobody is supposed to be above the law, especially the government.

      Congress may not be concerned with the NSA's actions, but they've already proven themselves willing to trade away our freedoms wholesale so that they can claim to be "tough on terror" during the next election cycle. We need to hold their feet to the fire and make them reign in the NSA.

  3. We all know that already by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are the corrupt power-mongering double-talking ghouls gonna do? "Oh yeah, we're the bad guy. Sue us" ?

    They do not need to tell us.

    We already know.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. Re:Edward Snowden is a god damned TRAITOR by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Edward Snowden is a big a danger to the US today as the Soviet Union was 4 years ago.

    No argument there...

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  5. Re:Edward Snowden is a god damned TRAITOR by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bullshit, the traitors are those in government ignoring the constitution and illegally spying on the citizenry. It needs to stop now.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  6. Next in news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "USA Today was raided by the Internal Revenue Service of the U.S.A. today."

  7. Congratulations! Peace prize next! by Zibodiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He deserves all the recognition we can give him. Whether he did things the right way or not, he did what he thought he should do for the good of Americans, even though he knew it would result in his becoming a refugee in another country, or possibly imprisoned and tortured here in the states. He didn't do it for money, and I doubt he did it for fame; he did it because his conscience told him he had to. He is a patriot who deserves to be treated as one. Here's to hoping he gets a Nobel Peace Prize.

  8. I remember when... by ApplePy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Back in my day, the *Russian* spooks defected *to* the *USA*.

    Now get off my lawn!

    Except that's damnably creepy when you think about what a change that is.

    --
    That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
  9. Re:USA Today reported on NSA's spying in *2006* by EdIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think you or the OP of this particular thread gets it at *all*.

    It's not that we now know about the NSA and what they were doing. We most certainly did.

    It's that we have FUCKING PROOF.

    In 2006, I was saying much the same things. I had high hopes for Obama because I honestly thought he was going to give us justice over some of that telco bullshit. Of course not. I was naive.

    What Snowden has done, and deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for, is give me CREDIBILITY.

    Now when I have a calm, not so agitated, san tin-foil conversation with somebody now about security, I get taken seriously.

    I'm being asked right now what it would take to raise the level of security for several companies. What chat software could we use that is heavily encrypted? What should we be doing to vet hardware?

    Most of it is of course executives wanting their conversations to be discrete so it can't be used against them, but that is progress nonetheless...

    At the very least now when I talk about mass surveillance I don't see rolled eyes and skepticism. I have their attention.

    Thanks Snowden.