A whistleblower is a member of
a group or organization that chooses to go against organization leadership to reveal some
misconduct or crime being committed. In the context of government employees, these are
usually people with privileged access to classified information that choose to leak that
information to the press to expose ethical misconduct. Whistleblowers play a critical part
in ensuring public accountability for agencies that otherwise might continue unchecked with
unethical activities.
Edward Snowden is one of the most important whistleblowers in American history. The
leaks of U.S. National Security Agency documents in 2013, which containing a previously
unthinkable amount of data concerning both domestic and international surveillance programs,
brought an unprecedented fact before the eyes of the public: The U.S. Government is watching
you. The leaks contained millions of documents that included everything from reports on the
now infamous PRISM surveillance program to internal PowerPoints for advertising
programs.
The effects of this leak were not only felt in the United States, but in many other
nations abroad that discovered they were being directly spied on by foreign powers. One
notable example is Brazil, who discovered that the NSA had been intercepting important emails for years.
(Newman The NSA Has Hacked Mexican and Brazilian Government Email For Years)
While the specific surveillance systems discussed might be specific to the US and their allies, the
attack on privacy rights is a threat to freedom endemic to any nation.
