It's indiscriminate information gathering behind closed doors.
I'm not a US citizen but I am a UK one. My government is allegedly doing far worse.
Look - the fact is, this guy publicised some information supposedly politically beneficial to a foreign power [0] and this happened hours before he left Hong Kong unscathed. Looking at what has been done to Bradley Manning I think you would have to be fairly ignorant to expect anything different if he had not done this.
What Snowden has done is pro-freedom, pro-individual-privacy and anti-government-secrecy. Even if you are not courageous enough to do so yourself, you should be glad that there are still people willing to risk themselves for the values that made your country the greatest in the world. It honestly seems like you rationalise against it for some reason?
Without people willing to make a stand you are on the way to total corruption; the few will benefit and the mass will lose. And then your only option to regaining power will be revolution and blood-shed.
[0] I would assume that the Chinese government would have been well aware about this already due to having their own spies. (I wonder how many foreign powers had direct access to Prism?) All it has allowed is sabre-rattling due to redefining the public space.
I fully support the leaks which relate to surveillance of private citizens. I don't support the leaks which relate to activities against foreign enemy powers (or rival powers, if "enemy" is too strong a word).
I'm not a US citizen but I am a UK one. My government is allegedly doing far worse.
Look - the fact is, this guy publicised some information supposedly politically beneficial to a foreign power [0] and this happened hours before he left Hong Kong unscathed. Looking at what has been done to Bradley Manning I think you would have to be fairly ignorant to expect anything different if he had not done this.
What Snowden has done is pro-freedom, pro-individual-privacy and anti-government-secrecy. Even if you are not courageous enough to do so yourself, you should be glad that there are still people willing to risk themselves for the values that made your country the greatest in the world. It honestly seems like you rationalise against it for some reason?
Without people willing to make a stand you are on the way to total corruption; the few will benefit and the mass will lose. And then your only option to regaining power will be revolution and blood-shed.
[0] I would assume that the Chinese government would have been well aware about this already due to having their own spies. (I wonder how many foreign powers had direct access to Prism?) All it has allowed is sabre-rattling due to redefining the public space.