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Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance, and the Struggle to Reform the NSA
Safeguarding Our Privacy and Our Values in an Age of Mass Surveillance
America’s mass surveillance programs, once secret, can no longer be ignored. While Edward Snowden began the process in 2013 with his leaks of top secret documents, the Obama administration’s own reforms have also helped bring the National Security Agency and its programs of signals intelligence collection out of the shadows. The real question is: What should we do about mass surveillance?
Timothy Edgar, a long-time civil liberties activist who worked inside the intelligence community for six years during the Bush and Obama administrations, believes that the NSA’s programs are profound threat to the privacy of everyone in the world. At the same time, he argues that mass surveillance programs can be made consistent with democratic values, if we make the hard choices needed to bring transparency, accountability, privacy, and human rights protections into complex programs of intelligence collection. Although the NSA and other agencies already comply with rules intended to prevent them from spying on Americans, Edgar argues that the rules—most of which date from the 1970s—are inadequate for this century. Reforms adopted during the Obama administration are a good first step but, in his view, do not go nearly far enough.
Edgar argues that our communications today—and the national security threats we face—are both global and digital. In the twenty first century, the only way to protect our privacy as Americans is to do a better job of protecting everyone’s privacy. Under Surveillance: The NSA and the Future of Privacy after Snowden explains both why and how we can do this, without sacrificing the vital intelligence capabilities we need to keep ourselves and our allies safe. If we do, we set a positive example for other nations that must confront challenges like terrorism while preserving human rights. The United States already leads the world in mass surveillance. It can lead the world in mass surveillance reform.
America’s mass surveillance programs, once secret, can no longer be ignored. While Edward Snowden began the process in 2013 with his leaks of top secret documents, the Obama administration’s own reforms have also helped bring the National Security Agency and its programs of signals intelligence collection out of the shadows. The real question is: What should we do about mass surveillance?
Timothy Edgar, a long-time civil liberties activist who worked inside the intelligence community for six years during the Bush and Obama administrations, believes that the NSA’s programs are profound threat to the privacy of everyone in the world. At the same time, he argues that mass surveillance programs can be made consistent with democratic values, if we make the hard choices needed to bring transparency, accountability, privacy, and human rights protections into complex programs of intelligence collection. Although the NSA and other agencies already comply with rules intended to prevent them from spying on Americans, Edgar argues that the rules—most of which date from the 1970s—are inadequate for this century. Reforms adopted during the Obama administration are a good first step but, in his view, do not go nearly far enough.
Edgar argues that our communications today—and the national security threats we face—are both global and digital. In the twenty first century, the only way to protect our privacy as Americans is to do a better job of protecting everyone’s privacy. Under Surveillance: The NSA and the Future of Privacy after Snowden explains both why and how we can do this, without sacrificing the vital intelligence capabilities we need to keep ourselves and our allies safe. If we do, we set a positive example for other nations that must confront challenges like terrorism while preserving human rights. The United States already leads the world in mass surveillance. It can lead the world in mass surveillance reform.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 15, 2018
One of the mistakes when questioning what Edward Snowden did, is that it is often framed in a yes or no framework. Questions like “was Snowden a patriot or a traitor?” and “was he right or wrong?” are ill-chosen given the complexity of what he did and exposed. In Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance, and the Struggle to Reform the NSA, author Timothy Edgar has written an interesting book which exhorts people to, as the title notes, move beyond Snowden.
For those that want to know how bad the NSA trampled on the US Constitution and the privacy of its citizens, Jennifer Stisa Granick articulately detailed those horrors in American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It, which I reviewed last year here.
Timothy Edgar is now a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies and Public Affairs at Brown University. Before that, he was the first director of privacy and civil liberties for the White House National Security Staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) during the Obama administration. There, he focused on cyber security, open government, surveillance, and data privacy. Edgar comes with an interesting pedigree, as he was an ACLU lawyer before he started working for the US intelligence community.
In the book, Edgar notes that its time to move beyond Snowden as the battle over what he did has obscured the fact that he thinks now the NSA and its critics generally agree on much more than they realize. The dynamic changed things, to the degree that the NSA and overall surveillance community know that they can no longer operate in the cowboy manner they did in the years before Snowden.
As a former ACLU lawyer, he understands the need to reign in on wholesale government surveillance of its citizens. And as someone who worked in the inner sanctum of the intelligence community, he clearly understands that strong and effective intelligence is key to national security.
In the 12 chapters of the book, Edgar does a good job of the problems of mass surveillance, and his approach to fixing it. The book highlights the inherent tension between national security and personal freedom. Edgar offers no simply solutions, as he knows there are none. He closes with 14 suggestions to ensure serious surveillance reform keeps progressing post-Snowden. It’s hard to see all of these 14 happening in totality, yet steps are being made to fix the past crimes of the surveillance community, and move beyond Snowden.
For those that want to know how bad the NSA trampled on the US Constitution and the privacy of its citizens, Jennifer Stisa Granick articulately detailed those horrors in American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It, which I reviewed last year here.
Timothy Edgar is now a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies and Public Affairs at Brown University. Before that, he was the first director of privacy and civil liberties for the White House National Security Staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) during the Obama administration. There, he focused on cyber security, open government, surveillance, and data privacy. Edgar comes with an interesting pedigree, as he was an ACLU lawyer before he started working for the US intelligence community.
In the book, Edgar notes that its time to move beyond Snowden as the battle over what he did has obscured the fact that he thinks now the NSA and its critics generally agree on much more than they realize. The dynamic changed things, to the degree that the NSA and overall surveillance community know that they can no longer operate in the cowboy manner they did in the years before Snowden.
As a former ACLU lawyer, he understands the need to reign in on wholesale government surveillance of its citizens. And as someone who worked in the inner sanctum of the intelligence community, he clearly understands that strong and effective intelligence is key to national security.
In the 12 chapters of the book, Edgar does a good job of the problems of mass surveillance, and his approach to fixing it. The book highlights the inherent tension between national security and personal freedom. Edgar offers no simply solutions, as he knows there are none. He closes with 14 suggestions to ensure serious surveillance reform keeps progressing post-Snowden. It’s hard to see all of these 14 happening in totality, yet steps are being made to fix the past crimes of the surveillance community, and move beyond Snowden.
November 27, 2017
Beyond Snowden offered an interesting look into an organization that is known for shrouding itself in mystery. While Snowden is mentioned throughout the book at various times, the main focus is really on bringing some light to the goings-on of the NSA with some history thrown in to show how things have gotten to the point we're at now and offers suggestions as to where we could go in the future. I believe Edgar did a decent job discussing the various angles involved in such complex issues as are presented in the text in an informative and generally respectful manner.
October 14, 2021
Interesting book but I wish I could have chosen to read it rather than had to! If I never have to read about Snowden again I will be a very happy girlie.
September 22, 2022
Not as insightful, or detailed as "Dark Mirror"- that would be preferred to this one, when it comes to the powers of the NSA surveillance programs.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews