The Snowden revelations on mass surveillance
- Date
- June 2013
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Global
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
In June 2013 former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked a vast trove of classified documents exposing the scale of mass surveillance conducted by the NSA and its allies in the name of counter-terrorism.
Beginning on 5 June, The Guardian and The Washington Post published revelations that the NSA was secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans and, through the PRISM program, accessing data from major internet companies including Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Further disclosures showed surveillance of foreign leaders and global communications networks. The revelations ignited an international debate over the balance between national security and privacy, strained diplomatic relations, and prompted legal and legislative reforms such as the US Freedom Act of 2015. Snowden, charged under the Espionage Act, fled to Hong Kong and then Russia, where he received asylum. The leaks reshaped global understanding of digital privacy and state power.
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Related politics & governance events
- Global democratic backsliding2010s (ongoing democratic recession)
- UN Adopts CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women18 December 1979
- The end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's election in South Africa27 April 1994 (election); 10 May 1994 (inauguration)
- Dissolution of the Soviet UnionAugust–December 1991
- German reunification3 October 1990
- Fall of the Berlin Wall9 November 1989
Further reading
The wider story
The Penguin History of the World
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