It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Edward SnowdenRead
What the government wants is something they never had before. They want total awareness. The question is, is that something we should be allowing?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The government seeks unprecedented levels of surveillance, raising ethical questions about privacy and freedom.
Edward Snowden's quote highlights the government's desire for complete awareness of its citizens, which presents a critical dilemma about the balance between security and individual privacy. This assertion prompts us to consider whether such invasive measures are acceptable and what implications they might have for our freedoms and rights as members of society.
Themes
GovernmentSurveillancePrivacyFreedomAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the ethics of government surveillance during a public forum.
More from Edward Snowden
All quotes βI think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.
Edward SnowdenRead
Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?
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A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Edward SnowdenRead
Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are.
Edward SnowdenRead
I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
Edward SnowdenRead
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