Introduction to the “Snowden Effect”

Student
Professor
Course
Date
Impact of the Snowden Effect
Introduction to the “Snowden Effect”
Technology plays a significant role in changing the world. Every aspect of people’s lives is under the control of technology. Details about people, businesses, governments, secret agencies, everything is on technology now, and communication is a massive technology aspect. Be it a person or a firm; every individual communicates through technological means (Fulk 921). However, technology can often create issues rather than finding a solution to problems. Communication of the internet means that many people’s data is at the risk of getting exposed to cyber hackers, the government, and secret agencies trying to collect the nation's data. One such issue came out in the public eye when an event, famously known as the “Snowden Effect”, occurred in 2013 (Galli 10). Communication and data privacy has become a growing concern for people over the last decade.
In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, brought the NSA's secrets out in the public eye. Snowden leaked the documents, which confirmed that the NSA kept track of all the e-communications data of US citizens and collected it without any authorization. It was not the only piece of information that Snowden leaked. The documents contained information regarding the PRISM, metadata on surveillance, Dishfir, Upstream, and XKeyscore. International service involvement was also observed, such as Tempora programs. Much of the information is still hard to interpret due to its scale and reach. The data is not hard to understand; instead, it is the interpretation of its significance to the NSA that many observers are still trying to understand. NSA. Prominent members of the National Security Agency (NSA) had to address the US citizens publicly and explain their activities openly.
There were several outcomes of the event. People understood that their data's security is essential for their privacy (Blake 20) as it was severely compromised. An end was put to the kind of surveillance people saw due to the files Snowden leaked.
A major outcome was related to the parties: Edward Snowden, NSA, the general public, and the country's judiciary. People grew to sympathize with Edward Snowden, whereas they pressured the NSA officials to prove their credibility by explaining themselves and the judiciary to pass a legal judgment against it.
A Technology Issue
It is a technology issue as the NSA programs are, primarily, aiming to gather information from (underwater) web cables (Upstream, Quantuminsert) and to seize data throughout their journey (Tempora). They include the arrangement of interceptors on the well-built fibre-optic cables between the internet's diverse center points. The GCHQ's Tempora program in the UK, is detailed to have put 200 catches on cables in a row from the British Isles in Western Europe and then the US. They always claim that they have inadequate resources, require more statistical data, and have an additional exchange—with less check and oversight—to expedite the procedure. Doubts are also stimulated by a moment and additional targeted preparation of data capture events, Xkeyscore, which is linked to the NSA Prism p...