Before five years about Edward Snowden made available to journalists a mini-database containing around ten thousand highly classified documents. The top secret contents revealed the scope and scale of the mass surveillance of the US government and its allies.
Έτσι ο κόσμος έμαθε για πρώτη φορά ότι η Υπηρεσία Εθνικής Ασφάλειας (NSA) εκτός την μαζική collection των τηλεφωνικών μεταδεδομένων από εκατομμύρια Αμερικάνους, είχε εγκαταστήσει backdoors σε καλώδια παροχής internet, ανέπτυσσε συνεχώς hacking tools, and was trying to break every encryption we use to secure our data.
Subsequently, the Silicon Valley for purposeful participation in the PRISM data collection program. And the revelations from Edward Snowden didn't stop.
The journalists published incredible stories that highlighted government abuse and immoral invasions, which, according to Snowden, were the smallest of the NSA database in Hawaii.
Five years later, no significant progress has been made. In addition to a law that does not reduce the number of domestic phone records by Americans, the government continues to oversee foreigners (and Americans) under the same legal framework as before the leaks, as US lawmakers have returned most of the government's powers in surveillance without much talk. We are back to the point that an executive order that "catches them all" gives the US government unlimited powers to collect data.
As for its tech companies Valley, που ήθελαν να ανακτήσουν την εμπιστοσύνη των χρηστών τους μετά τη δημοσίευση των διαρροών, θα μπορούσαμε να πούμε ότι δεν άλλαξαν και πολλά σε συνολικό επίπεδο…
Of course not to be unfair, some things have changed for the better. Today, we have end-to-end encryption on almost all of our devices.
After the revelation that the NSA had reached the private fiber optic cables joining Yahoo and Google's data centers, companies began to encrypt everything. Even companies that did not report this leak, such as Microsoft, have begun to encrypt their cables in a bid to close the doors on spies.
Encryption forced the NSA and its allies to hit the front doors of the companies by holding warrants instead of trying to install backdoors.
Google, the Twitter, η Apple, το Facebook, η Microsoft και η Yahoo άρχισαν να δημοσιεύουν εκθέσεις διαφάνειας που ανέφεραν πόσα στοιχεία παράδωσαν στις μυστικές services. Σήμερα οι αναφορές διαφάνειας έχουν υιοθετηθεί σχεδόν από όλες τις εταιρείες και παρόλο που δεν είναι τέλειες, προσφέρουν μια ιδέα στο προσκήνιο των νομικών απαιτήσεων που έχουν σαν στόχο τα δεδομένα χρηστών.
Βέβαια αυτό που δεν έχει αλλάξει καθόλου είναι ο τρόπος με τον οποίο διαχειρίζεται η ιδιωτική βιομηχανία τα δεδομένα των χρηστών τους. Οι εταιρείες technologyς συνεχίζουν να συλλέγουν δεδομένα πολύ επιθετικά για να σερβίρουν διαφημίσεις και να εξυπηρετούν συμφέροντα τρίτων. Πολλές εταιρείες είναι σε μεγάλο βαθμό ανεξέλεγκτες αφού ελέγχονται οριακά από το νόμο, κάτι που τους δίνει απεριόριστο χώρο στην διαχείριση των προσωπικών μας δεδομένων.
Private espionage, data collection, the creation of a profile for voters and buyers of products is attributable, and legislators have not reacted to date.
From all of the above we can say that the leaks of Edward Snowden did not save us but caused a cultural shift. We are trying to control our personal information more. Leaks were also the catalyst that technology companies needed to add more encryption.
However, say irony (or capitalism), even if technology companies have tried to cut off the secret services from our data, they continue to collect them with undiminished interest. So the next showdown will probably be with Silicon Valley.
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