Below
is an email from Edward Snowden on the one year anniversary of his
courageous whistleblowing that let us all know that we are under
constant surveillance by the government. We know the United States
government is conducting dragnet surveillance of phone calls, emails,
text messages, chats and collecting millions of images every day for the
purpose of facial recognition surveillance. The actions of the NSA —
and no doubt other surveillance agencies and corporations working with
the security state — is the opposite of what the Constitution says in
the Fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights:
The right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and
the persons or things to be seized.
Even though written more than 200 years ago, the language is easy for
every American to understand. The Fourth Amendment is supposed to
protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures, and searches require
a warrant issued by a judge based on probable cause that an individual
committed a crime. Over the years this amendment has been whittled away
by law enforcement agencies and the courts whether as part of the war on
drugs, the Red Scare against Communism or the war on terrorism, or just
plain fear of crime. Do those words have any meaning that remains?
The Snowden leaks give each of us the information we need to realize
our most personal information, our private communications and so much
more are being seized every day. Snowden rang the alarm, now we must all
do what we can to create real privacy and stop unreasonable
surveillance by the government and corporations working with them. It is
our task to redefine privacy and what type of searches are acceptable
in a new age of digital, interconnected communications. We must redefine
the world as we want to see it for all of our futures.
The email below was written by Edward Snowden and sent by ACLU Action. KZ
They Knew Our Secrets. One Year Later, We Know Theirs.
It’s been one year.
Technology has been a liberating force
in our lives. It allows us to create and share the experiences that make
us human, effortlessly. But in secret, our very own government—one
bound by the Constitution and its Bill of Rights—has reverse-engineered
something beautiful into a tool of mass surveillance and oppression. The
government right now can easily monitor whom you call, whom you
associate with, what you read, what you buy, and where you go online and
offline, and they do it to all of us, all the time.
Today, our most intimate private
records are being indiscriminately seized in secret, without regard for
whether we are actually suspected of wrongdoing. When these capabilities
fall into the wrong hands, they can destroy the very freedoms that
technology should be nurturing, not extinguishing. Surveillance, without
regard to the rule of law or our basic human dignity, creates societies
that fear free expression and dissent, the very values that make
America strong.
In the long, dark shadow cast by the security state, a free society cannot thrive.
That’s
why one year ago I brought evidence of these irresponsible activities
to the public—to spark the very discussion the U.S. government didn’t
want the American people to have. With every revelation, more and more
light coursed through a National Security Agency that had grown too
comfortable operating in the dark and without public consent. Soon
incredible things began occurring that would have been unimaginable
years ago. A federal judge in open court called an NSA mass surveillance
program likely unconstitutional and “almost Orwellian.” Congress and
President Obama have called for an end to the dragnet collection of the
intimate details of our lives. Today legislation to begin rolling back
the surveillance state is moving in Congress after more than a decade of
impasse.
I
am humbled by our collective successes so far. When the Guardian and
The Washington Post began reporting on the NSA’s project to make privacy
a thing of the past, I worried the risks I took to get the public the
information it deserved would be met with collective indifference.
One year later, I realize that my fears were unwarranted.
Americans,
like you, still believe the Constitution is the highest law of the
land, which cannot be violated in secret in the name of a false
security. Some say I’m a man without a country, but that’s not true.
America has always been an ideal, and though I’m far away, I’ve never
felt as connected to it as I do now, watching the necessary debate
unfold as I hoped it would. America, after all, is always at our
fingertips; that is the power of the Internet.
But now it’s time to keep the momentum for serious reform going so the conversation does not die prematurely.
Only
then will we get the legislative reform that truly reins in the NSA and
puts the government back in its constitutional place. Only then will we
get the secure technologies we need to communicate without fear that
silently in the background, our very own government is collecting,
collating, and crunching the data that allows unelected bureaucrats to
intrude into our most private spaces, analyzing our hopes and fears.
Until then, every American who jealously guards their rights must do
their best to engage in digital self-defense and proactively protect
their electronic devices and communications. Every step we can take to
secure ourselves from a government that no longer respects our privacy
is a patriotic act.
We’ve come a long way, but there’s more to be done.
Edward J. Snowden, American
P.S. Check out and share the ACLU’s new video about the last year in the surveillance debate,
“They knew our secrets. One year later, we know theirs.”
