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Recommended: Government surveillance issues

Edward Snowden became a household name this year. His face and story have featured on an innumerable amount of the worlds most well known and reputable media outlets making this issue difficult to ignore. He appeared in the public eye by leaking classified information about major top secret United States, Israeli and British government mass surveillance programs to the media. This matter is surrounded by vast controversy as he has inspired activists to take a step out of anonymity and voice their opinion publicly causing a number of protests and international debates. Others are less grateful, naming him a traitor and cry for this man to pay for his crimes against the US. This essay shall explore the issues of this debate and ultimately conclude with my opinion hopefully having persuaded the reader.

Snowden believes in the cause he fights so passionately for; a world free of oppressive goverments. He was a former employee of the CIA and NSA contractor. He and his girlfriend had a carefree, joyful life in the sunny city of Waipahu, Hawaii accompanied with his comfortable $200,000 salary. He sacrificed it all by disclosing information to the Guardian about the government's mass surveillance program. Snowden disclosed this classified information as he believed it was his moral obligation and to do otherwise would be dishonourable.

Snowden leaked this information publicly rather in the shadows of anonymity as many whistleblowers choose to, scared of the consequences of a noble act, he says he did so because "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong". The government is built to protect whistleblowers with its whistleblower protection act, however this ceases to be the case as they neglect to en...

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...cal because this information can be useful. The government needs to use this information to target specific individuals that they believe to be dangerous. We need to able to trust the government to give the correct people authorization to this information, if that private information was to be used malignantly then we have a very significant problem.

I believe Snowden is undeniably a hero and patriot. He did a great service to the entire world by disclosing this information and in turn sacrificing his own freedoms and quality of life. The NSA surveillance needed to be made public in order for a change to be made; thanks to Snowden changes are being made. A hero does not always need to wear a cape or carry a sword, it can simply be a man standing up to the bully and fighting for what he believes is right. Snowden is the protagonist of this David versus Goliath story.

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