It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Edward SnowdenRead
Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the potential abuse of surveillance technologies by analysts in positions of power.
Edward Snowden's quote emphasizes the alarming capabilities of surveillance technologies, where anyone with the right access can monitor and wiretap virtually anyone, regardless of their status or position. This pervasive reach raises significant ethical concerns about privacy, government oversight, and individual rights in the digital age.
Themes
SurveillancePrivacyFreedomPowerTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on digital privacy rights, one might cite this quote to emphasize the dangers of unregulated surveillance.
More from Edward Snowden
All quotes →I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.
Edward SnowdenRead
Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?
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A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Edward SnowdenRead
Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are.
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I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
Edward SnowdenRead
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