EDWARD SNOWDEN: WHISTLE-BLOWER

OR CRIMINAL
BUSNINESS ETHICS PROJECT REPORT
PRESENTED BY: GROUP-04
HIMANSHU RATHORE FPM02004
HRISHIKESH DAS PGP05020
MANISH GUPTA PGP05026
HARSH PARMAR PGP05035

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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
LATE 2009-MARCH 2012:
Snowdens supervisor at the CIA placed a critical assessment of his behavior and
work habits in his personnel file and voiced the suspicion that he had tried to break
into classified computer files to which he was not authorized to have access, the New
York Times reports after he is identified as the leaker, quoting two unnamed senior
American officials. Snowden leaves the CIA soon after his supervisors criticism and
begins work as a NSA contractor assigned by Dell -- one of 854,000 contractors with topsecret clearance working for the federal government. Over the next several years, he
switches between assignments with the NSA and CIA for Dell, including a stint at a NSA
facility in Japan that lasts until March 2012.

MARCH 2012:
Snowden moves to Hawaii to work at a NSA facility there as a Dell employee. He
moves into a blue-and-white house in Waipahu, where he is joined by his girlfriend,
Lindsay Mills, a 28-year-old performance artist. He donates $250 to the Republican
presidential campaign of libertarian Ron Paul, campaign records show, followed by a
second contribution of the same amount two months later.

DEC. 1, 2012:
Snowden reaches out to Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer and columnist for The Guardian.

JAN. 2013:
Snowden reaches out to Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker.

MARCH 2013:
He seeks a new contractor job with Booz Allen Hamilton at the same NSA facility in
Hawaii. He later tells the South China Morning Post that he did so to get additional
access to classified documents he intends to leak.

MAY 2013:
Snowden begins sending some documents to Poitras, Greenwald and to Barton Gellman
of the Washington Post. He tells his NSA supervisor that he needs to take some time off
to undergo treatment for epilepsy, which he was diagnosed with the previous year,
according to the Guardian. He tells his girlfriend he will be away for a few weeks, but is
vague about the reason.

MAY 20, 2013:

Snowden arrives in Hong Kong from Hawaii.

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JUNE 2, 2013:
Greenwald and Poitras arrive in Hong Kong.

JUNE 5, 2013:
First revelations arising from the documents provided by Snowden are published in a
Guardian article about the NSAs collection of domestic email and telephone metadata
from Verizon as part of what is later revealed to be an even broader collection effort.

6 JUNE 2013:
Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald reports the US National Security Agency (NSA) is
collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers under a top secret
court order granting the government unlimited authority to obtain communications data
for a three-month period.

7 JUNE:
The Guardian and Washington Post report the NSA is accessing the systems of US internet
giants including Google and Facebook, and collecting data under a previously
undisclosed surveillance programme called Prism. The programme allows officials to
collect material including emails, live chats and search histories.

8 JUNE:
US President Barack Obama says the government surveillance programmes strike "the
right balance" between security and privacy and are closely overseen by Congress and
the courts.

9 JUNE:
Edward Snowden, 29, is named as the source of the intelligence leaks. Speaking from
Hong Kong, he explains why he went public.
10 June:
Mr Snowden checks out of his Hong Kong hotel and his whereabouts remain unknown as
it is rumoured the US is pursuing a criminal investigation against him.

11 JUNE:
The EU demands US assurances that Europeans' rights are not being infringed by the
newly-revealed surveillance programmes. Mr Snowden's employer, defence contractor
Booz Allen Hamilton, says it has fired the infrastructure analyst for violating its ethics
code.

12 JUNE:
Mr Snowden tells the South China Morning Post from a secret location in Hong Kong that
he will fight any attempt to extradite him. The Speaker of the US House of
Representatives John Boehner describes him as a traitor. The UK assures US and British
citizens their intelligence agencies are operating within the law.

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13 JUNE:
Mr Snowden says the US government has been hacking computers in mainland China and
Hong Kong for years. NSA Director Keith Alexander tells the US Senate that surveillance
programmes have disrupted dozens of terror plots.

14 JUNE:
FBI Director Robert Mueller says Mr Snowden has caused the US "significant harm" and
tells Congress the US will hunt him down and prosecute him.

15 JUNE:
Hundreds of protesters march on the US consulate in Hong Kong, demanding local
authorities protect Mr Snowden.

17 JUNE:
Mr Snowden denies he is a Chinese agent and says US officials, in labelling him a traitor,
have destroyed any possibility of a fair trial.

18 JUNE:
Mr Snowden's father, Lon, issues a public plea urging his son to not commit "treason".

19 JUNE:
NSA Director Alexander tells the US House intelligence committee the surveillance
programmes leaked by Mr Snowden helped thwart 50 attacks since 2001.

20 JUNE:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange attempts to broker a deal to grant Mr Snowden asylum
in Iceland.

22 JUNE:
US prosecutors file a criminal complaint, charging Mr Snowden with espionage and theft.
The White House requests his extradition from Hong Kong.

23 JUNE:
Mr Snowden flies from Hong Kong to Moscow as extradition pressure builds. Ecuador's
foreign minister confirms on Twitter that Mr Snowden has requested asylum there.
Ecuador has an extradition treaty with the US but allows for political asylum
exemptions, and has sheltered Mr Assange in its London embassy for the past year.

24 JUNE:
White House spokesman Jay Carney urges Russia to return Mr Snowden, and says the
manner of his departure from Hong Kong would "unquestionably impact" on US relations
with China.

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25 JUNE:
China describes US accusations that it facilitated the departure of Mr Snowden from
Hong Kong as "groundless and unacceptable". Russian President Vladimir Putin confirms
Mr Snowden is in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and remains a free
man. US Secretary of State John Kerry requests Russia transfer the "fugitive of justice"
to the United States.

27 JUNE:
Ecuador warns it could take weeks to rule on Mr Snowden's asylum bid.

28 JUNE:
Mr Snowden's father, Lon, ask US Attorney General Eric Holder for "ironclad assurances"
his son's rights will be protected should he return to the US.

29-30 JUNE:
Germany's Der Spiegel magazine says it has seen a secret document provided by Mr
Snowden showing the US bugged EU offices in Washington and at UN headquarters in
New York. European officials demand "full clarification" from the US.
Snowden's bids for asylum
Edward Snowden is seen for the first time in three weeks on 12 July

1 JULY:
Mr Snowden applies to Russia for political asylum; President Putin says he should stop
leaking US secrets if he wants to stay. President Obama acknowledges "high-level"
discussions with Moscow on extradition.

2 JULY:
Mr Snowden withdraws his asylum request to Russia and sends requests to 20 other
countries, according to Wikileaks.

3-5 JULY:
Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane is diverted to Austria amid suspicion that Mr
Snowden is on board. President Morales threatens to close the US embassy in Bolivia in
response.

6 JULY:
Nicaragua and Venezuela offer Mr Snowden asylum.

12 JULY:
Mr Snowden emerges at Sheremetyevo airport for the first time in three weeks, saying
he sought asylum in Russia as he was unable to travel to Latin America.
Glenn Greenwald greets Mr Miranda as he arrives in Brazil on 19 August
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1 AUGUST:
Mr Snowden leaves the airport and enters Russian territory after applying for temporary
asylum. The US says Russia's decision is "extremely disappointing".

7-9 AUGUST:
President Obama cancels a meeting with Russian President Putin following Russia's
asylum decision. He promises "appropriate reforms" to guarantee greater oversight of US
surveillance programmes.

16 AUGUST:
Citing documents leaked by Mr Snowden, the Washington Post reports the NSA broke
privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two
years.

19-20 AUGUST:
Mr Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, is detained under terror laws at London's
Heathrow airport for nine hours on his way to Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian citizen
reportedly has his mobile phone, laptop, DVDs and other items seized. UK politicians
demand an explanation. The US denies involvement but acknowledges it was given a
"heads-up" from British officials about the detention.

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THE SNOWDEN EFFECT

The Snowden effect, a definition by Jay Rosen: Direct and indirect gains in public
knowledge from the cascade of events and further reporting that followed Edward
Snowdens leaks of classified information about the surveillance state in the U.S.
The leak of the data by Edward Snowden led to multiple effects on US. It didnt only
include the effect on US economy but many other technology businesses and US based
companies got affected by the Snowdens leak of confidential data.

EFFECT ON U.S.
Snowden's actions sparked a debate about the intersection of national security
and individual privacy. Economists speculated that Countries and companies will erect
borders of sorts in cyberspace. Even US congress, which used be divided; got united over
the idea that massive Intelligence gathering after the terrorists attack on 9/11 have
crossed the borders of acceptance. Global attitude survey revealed that the image of
United States got damaged by the revelation.
Director, National Intelligence James Clapper reported, Snowden's leaks created a
"perfect storm", affecting the intelligence community's capabilities. Snowden's leaks
damaged relationships with foreign and corporate stakeholders, restrained budget
resources, and caused the U.S. to discontinue collecting intelligence on certain targets,
putting the United States at greater risk.
Terrorist groups beneficiated from these revelations too; National
Counterterrorism Center reported that the leak has made it easier for terrorists to
evade United States surveillance by changing their encryption methods. They lost
collections against some individuals, people that the center was concerned about.
Terrorists adopted new encryption measures and they adopted greater securities.
Terrorists came to know about the patterns by which US was collecting the data, it
helped them make a new securities measure.

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EFFECT ON TECHNOLOGY
Technology industry had a profound impact after Snowden reveled that NSA was
collecting information using some US cloud based services. Google, Cisco and AT&T lost
their business in International market as their role in NSA spying. The estimation
suggested that cloud based computing industry will loss nearly $35 billion by end of
2016. A recent CSA survey found that half of the non-US respondents surveyed said they
will move away from US clouds.
Lavabit, a secure email provider that Snowden operated, discontinued service
after being asked for encryption keys that would have exposed to U.S. government
prosecutors the emails of all 410,000 Lavabit users. The next day, a similar provider
called Silent Circle announced that it too would shut down because the company could
"see the writing on the wall" and felt it was not possible to sufficiently secure email. In
2013, the two companies joined forces and announced a new email service, "Dark Mail
Alliance, designed to withstand government surveillance.
Blackphone-a phone for the age of Snowden; described as a smartphone
explicitly designed for security and privacy" was created by the makers of GeeksPhone,
Silent Circle and PGP. The smartphone provided encryption of phone calls, emails, texts
and internet browsing. Americans used less internet for sending emails, online shopping
and banking. The internet became a National aspect rather than an international
aspect. Countries like Brazil started making their own versions of internet. Different
countries separated from International to regional clouds such as German Cloud and
Swiss Cloud.
Every single technology company got affected from Snowden Effect. The effects
were due to perceptions of customers that those companies were having some direct or
indirect connections with NSA. Many multinational companies were moving their data
outside U.S. Companies which faced drops in the revenue were Cisco, Google, HewlettPackard, Qualcomm and IBM.
Snowdens leak forced terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda and Jihad to develop
more secure digital communications as to evade the NSA intelligence. They majorly
focused on increasing their encryption technics and improvising it.

OTHER EFFECTS
Snowden effect on consumer products started with smartphone industry. Apple in
its IOS 8 update, included security measures which encrypts all data inside it. The leak
actually created buzz in the customers that every hardware and software made by Cisco
Systems had some direct or indirect linkage with American intelligence. Snowdens leak
also inspired other entities to leak the data collection programs of other countries. Days
after President Franois Hollande sternly asked the United States not to spy on its allies,
the newspaper Le Monde disclosed that France has its own large program of data
collection, which sweeps up nearly all the data transmissions, including telephone calls,
e-mails and social media activity that come in and out of France.

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SNOWDENS MOTIVATION
Snowden explained that his intention behind the leak was not to personally gain
but he couldnt accept the idea of breaching American citizens personal freedom.
According to him; NSAs sneaking and eavesdropping was violation fundamental rights of
United States citizens. He made a public statement through Guardian that I have no
intention of hiding because I have done nothing wrong. He said that revealing his
identity would protect his colleagues from being subjected to a hunt to determine who
had been responsible for the leaks. He thinks that the surveillance of whole populations,
rather than individuals, threatens to be the greatest human rights challenge.
Snowden explained his actions saying: "I don't want to live in a society that does
these sort of things [surveillance on its citizens]. I do not want to live in a world where
everything I do and say is recorded. My sole motive is to inform the public as to that
which is done in their name and that which is done against them." Snowden didnt want
to change the society or the way NSA worked, but he wanted to give a strong message
and wanted to inform the society about their rights being violated by United States
intelligence. He thought that revealing his personality would reach people in better
ways than just revealing just documents.
Snowden explained that in United States, whistle-blowers dont get as much
protection as they should get. Whistle-blowers are destroyed. Leakers are prosecuted
under espionage act and he wanted set an example for whistle-blowers by leaking the
data. He wanted to give a strong a message that whistle-blowers can also win against
strong entities like American intelligence and other strong organizations.

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LEGAL ASPECTS
After Snowden leaked the documents and revealed numerous global surveillance
programs run by NSA and European governments, his company Booz Allen fired him for
violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy. The US government has filed
sealed criminal charges against him. Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S.
security services had monitored data about phone calls from Verizon and Internet data
from large companies such as Google and Yahoo as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
United States federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Snowden, charging
him with theft of government property and under Espionage Act through unauthorized
announcement of national defense information and conscious communication of
confidential communications intelligence information to an unofficial person. Each of
these charges carries a maximum possible prison term of ten years.
However, the Espionage Act effectively hinders a person from defending himself
before a jury in an open court. Snowden explained why he rejected the request, "What
he doesn't say is that the crimes that they charged me with are crimes that don't allow
me to make my case. They don't allow me to defend myself in an open court to the
public and convince a jury that what I did was to their benefit. So it's, I would say,
illustrative that the President would choose to say someone should face the music when
he knows the music is a show trial." U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal
complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong
Kong.
The Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) in US, which provides statutory
protections for federal employees who engage in whistleblowing, that is, making a
disclosure evidencing illegal or improper government activities. In order to trigger the
protections of the WPA, a case must contain a personnel action that was taken because
of a protected disclosure made by a covered employee.

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CONTEMPORARIES
This is not the first time US government face the problem of whistleblowing. There
are many incidents when the confidential documents were leaked and whistleblower
were charged against the law and face the consequences under Espionage Act. Below we
discuss about some of the contemporaries of Edward Snowden:
a) Thomas Drake:
He is a former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency
(NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran. He
was charged for mishandling the confidential documents in 2001. It was
discovered that he used encrypted e-mail to communicate with a reporter. The
indictment against him included five charges of violating the Espionage Act, one
charge of obstruction of justice and four counts of making false statements to
the FBI while he was under investigation. Drakes troubles began when he
became convinced that an NSA program intended to glean important
intelligence, code-named Trailblazer, had turned into a boondoggle that cost
more than a billion dollars and violated U.S. citizens privacy rights. In June,
2011 the government dropped all of the charges against Drake and agreed not to
seek any jail time in return for Drake's agreement to plead guilty to a
misdemeanor of misusing the agencys computer system. Drake was sentenced to
one year of probation and community service.
b) Bradley Manning
Charles Manning, a 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, is in military
custody, charged with aiding the enemy, publishing intelligence on the Internet,
multiple thefts of public records and fraud. Although aiding the enemy is a
capital offense, Army prosecutors have said they will not recommend the death
penalty. In May 2010, Pfc. Bradley Manning was arrested and charged with
leaking more than 250,000 State Department cables and thousands of
intelligence reports to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He was convicted under
violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after releasing the largest set
of classified documents ever leaked to the public in July 2013. After all the
proceedings of the court, she was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including
aiding the enemy, was the most serious charge and giving secrets to WikiLeaks.
She besought guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges. She was convicted of
17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but was
acquitted of aiding the enemy as the judgment came on July 30. She is serving a
35-year sentence at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort
Leavenworth from August 2013.
c) Julian Assange
Julian Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian publisher and
journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of the website WikiLeaks, which was cofounded in 2006 after an earlier career in hacking and programming. He gets in
attention when published U.S. military and diplomatic documents leaked by
Chelsea Manning. WikiLeaks posted great volumes of material exposing
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government and corporate misconduct appealing various degrees of publicity.
Also, he helped Snowden, by paying his lodging in Hong Kong and his flight out to
Russia.

SCALE OF DISCLOSURE & ITS IMPACT

The number of files disclosed in this disclosure isnt identified exactly till now. However,
it is confirmed that it is one of the largest disclosure happen in history of the US. As per
the records following are the files leaked by Snowden:

Around, 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations and 7,900

documents

Approximately, 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files

At least, 58,000 British intelligence files

NSA Director Keith Alexander initially estimated that Snowden had copied
anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents

The vast majority of those were related to US military capabilities, operations,

tactics, techniques and procedures

Snowden contacted Glenn Greenwald, journalist of The Guardian, anonymously as

"Cincinnatus" and shared the sensitive documents about surveillance disclosure. He also
contacted Laura Poitras who made the documentary about NSA whistleblower William
Binney. Snowden communicated with these people through encrypted email and used a
codename for all these communication.
When the time to disclose the documents approach nearer, Snowden left the US
and he stayed in Hong Kong when the initial articles based on the leaked documents
were published in The Guardian on June 5. Within few months, these documents had
been obtained and published by media outlets worldwide.
NBC broke its first story based on the leaked documents in 2014. These documents
show how US government was spying into the personal space of every individual and
after the leaks NSA had to stop this surveillance program in order to preserve the
secrecy of the people of US.
Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Barton Gellman received 2013 George Polk
Award for reporting all the incidents based on Snowdens leaks. All of them dedicated
this award to Snowden for his bravery.
The ongoing publication of leaked documents has revealed previously unknown
details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the USs NSA in close cooperation with
three countries, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. The Editor-in-chief, the
Guardian said that only one percent of the whole documents had been published and
warned that worst is still to come. The first program to be exposed was PRISM, with
reports from both The Washington Post and The Guardian published. The preliminary
reports included facts about NSA call database and of a secret court order to record
phones of millions of Americans' daily including high profiles from the politics and
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corporate world and hand over it to NSA. They not only do the spying of American
people but they capture and record French citizens' phone and internet records. It was
revealed that the NSA was collecting millions of email and instant messaging contact
lists, email contents, tracking their cell phones location.
The NSA was exposed to be used the MUSCULAR surveillance program in which NSA
secretly collaborated with Yahoo and Google data centers to collect information from
millions of account holders worldwide. Google, Cisco, and AT&T lost business
internationally due to the uproar over their roles in NSA spying. Snowden told to the
reporters that NSA does not bound its data collection to national security issues only,
accusing the agency of conducting industrial espionage. He said that if there is any
information at any corporate level which is beneficial to US national interest, even if it
doesnt have any concern with national security, NSA will take the information and use it
for their benefit. This incident portrayed a negative image of US globally. It impacted
the whole world in context of their secrecy and safety of their personal data on cloud
services.
However, US government justified their stand on this surveillance that they had
done this spying only in the interest of national security and they never used for their
personal benefits. Also, they accused Snowden that by disclosing these programs
globally he had informed terrorist groups about NSAs plans and due to which these
terrorist groups had changed their location and now it is difficult to locate them again.
Also, as per NSA, the terrorist groups had altered their communications to avoid
surveillance techniques revealed by Snowden. These disclosures created blind spots in
the NSA's surveillance by revealing U.S. strategies to monitor terrorism and because of
this there is more threat to national security.

APPENDIX: CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST SNOWDEN

WHISTLEBLOWING AND ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES

Whistle blowing is the disclosure by a person, usually an employee in a
government agency or private enterprise, to the public or to those in authority, of
mismanagement, corruption, illegality, or some other wrongdoing. It is necessary part of
all societies to keep the systems vigilant of any malpractices occurring within or
outside.
Governments generally make provisions for safeguarding the interests of
whistleblowers in organizations and industries. OSHA is one such initiative. OSHA's
Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of more than
twenty whistleblower statutes protecting employees who report violations of various
workplace safety and health, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product,
environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle
safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities
laws. There are other statutes which govern the disclosure acts done by individuals as
protected acts and ensure that they are not subjected to any harassment of any sort
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by the organization. There can be legal ramifications if it is established that the
organization has laid off the whistle blower or tried to damage his reputation or
attempted to damage his career or indulged in any other disparaging activity of any
sort.
In India, in 2003, the Law Commission of India recommended the adoption of the
Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Act, 2002.The need was felt as a
consequence of Satyendra Dubey (NHAI) and Manjunath (IOCL) murder case. These
people were whistle blowers in their respective organizations who suffered the wrath of
the defaulters. The Whistleblowers' Protection Bill, 2011 was passed by the Lok Sabha on
28 December 2011 and by the Rajyasabha on 21 February 2014. The Whistle Blowers
Protection Act, 2011 has received the Presidential assent on May 9, 2014 and the same
has been subsequently published in the official gazette of the Government of India on
May 9, 2014 by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. It has not yet
come in force.
In US whistle blowing acts are exclusive of defense and government officials.
These officials are charged under espionage act (meant for spies) in cases of disclosure
activities. Before Edward Snowden there have been other officials who have disclosed
the unconstitutional activities of the government. Thomas Drakes, Brad Birkenfeld,
Thomas Tamm, Gary Aguirre, Mark Klein, Cate Jenkins to name a few.
Edward Snowden was charged with two counts of espionage act and one act of theft of
govt property. His actions can be judged under various ethical perspectives.
1) Constitutional law is the genus of all other laws. In a conflict between
administrative law and constitutional law, constitutional law prevails.
Administrative law of the land makes it imperative for an individual to not leak any
information in defense organizations. Also Booz Allen Hamilton, as an employer,
would have had a strict code of confidentiality and secrecy. What can a person do,
in situations like these when the Law of the Land stops him/her from blowing the
lid of any wrong activity, even if it is done by the government?
Snowden stuck to constitutional law. And thus there can be grounds that what he did
was not categorically illegal.
2) According to the principle of Nuremberg 1945: "Individuals have international
duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual
citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace
and humanity from occurring. Snowden, cited the principle and stated it as a
justification for his actions.
3) According to the theory of virtues, an action should be judged on the basis of
intention behind it. It puts a lot of emphasis on being rather than doing. Edward
Snowden, apparently did not receive any benefits from the disclosure. On the
other hand, he had to suffer the trauma of being ostracized from ones own
country. According to Rasmessen reports, 21% Americans considered him a traitor.
To leave an established and a well-paid career and his own country to take a
refuge in some other country is the price that he paid for the society.
4) Kants theory of categorical imperative states that actions are either universally
accepted or not. They are either right or wrong. With whatever motives a

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government has, to spy on its own citizens, the political leaders of 39 countries
and many more. NSAs actions, in that regard were wrong. So what Snowden did is
perceived as ethical.
5) Utilitarian theory talks about the consequences of the actions being the basis to
judge the ethicality of the act. By comparing all the positive and negative
consequences we can judge what outweighed the other. Snowdens disclosures
made a terrible impact on US and its nation brand. Suddenly Uncle Sam became
this spying, creepy nation that the world started looking with a suspicious feeling.
The damages done to its nation brand and to all the telecom businesses in terms of
lost business and brand equity can be approximated. Moreover, as the director of
NSA, James Clapper said, Snowden has inflicted more damage than anyone has.
He has put the lives of all Americans at stake. We will keep our analysis to the
monetary aspect only.
These are few details which will help us monitor the damage.
a) Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation
Foundation, predicted that the United States cloud computing industry could
lose $35 billion by 2016.
b) Forrester Research, a technology research firm, said the losses could be as
high as $180 billion, or 25 percent of industry revenue, based on the size of
the cloud computing, web hosting and outsourcing markets and the worst case
for damages.
c) Cisco became the one of the first companies to say publicly that its sales were
down as a direct result of the NSA disclosures.
d) Runbox, a Norwegian email service that marketed itself as an alternative to
American services like Gmail and said it does not comply with foreign court
orders seeking personal information, reported a 34 percent annual increase in
customers after news of the N.S.A. surveillance
e) Tech companies have collectively spent millions and possibly billions of dollars
adding state-of-the-art encryption features to consumer services, like Google
search and Microsoft Outlook.
f) IBM said in January that it would spend $1.2 billion to build 15 new data
centers, including in London, Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia, to lure foreign
customers that are sensitive about the location of their data. Salesforce.com
announced similar plans this month.
In the light of above developments, it is observed that in terms of monetary
perspective there was a greater loss than gain to the American citizens. It sparked off a
debate about NSAs activities and the Federal court condemned it. The congress backed
it. Even the framer of the Patriot act commented that NSA went too far with the powers
given to it by the act. It is noteworthy that the act was formed after the tragic incident
of 9/11 to give NSA most of the surveillance powers that it enjoys today. But apart from
the debate, it did not produce any substantial results for the people. There didnt seem
to be a policy shift in the NSA as well. On the other hand, a lot of funds were redirected

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to its activities for restructuring the structure, to make it more fool proof and
revamped. That would require a great deal of taxpayers funds.
In a nutshell, Snowdens disclosures took a heavy toll on the pockets of any average
American. It was a good intention program which was paid very dearly. In utilitarian
perspective, Snowdens act is judged to be unethical.
6) According to the Theory of rights, a citizen cant be devoid of his basic rights given
in the constitution. According to 4 th and 5th amendment of US constitution, Article
12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such systems of massive,
pervasive surveillance are prohibited. What NSA did was far beyond its institutional
capacity and need. To conduct surveillance operations to ensure the safety of its
citizens is rational but to extend it to use it for illicit benefits is shameful on its
part. Snowden in his interviews stated that personal, sexual lives of so
termed ,radicalizers was closely observed to use it in critical times against them
as a defamatory tool. Anyone in the NSA would know and they would gossip about
it in the departments.
Snowden also talked about industrial espionage where in NSA would spy on German
companies, namely Siemens for gaining some leverage over US companies.
Snowden did what was necessary. Ethically right.
7) Ethical breakdown is a condition when we judge the indispensability of an act that
in itself is wrong but is necessary to fight a greater evil in the society. In the
recent times, the terrorist organizations have become organized and more
effective. They are more or less run like corporations with sophisticated technical
support and strategic planning. They have intelligence of their own. Terrorist
organizations like ISIS behead war prisoners and upload the list of the next to-be
victims on their website. It is no more about fighting bearded Islamic
fundamentalists which were easy to spot anywhere, but the new generation of
war-mongers are sophisticated, educated and effective. These organizations use
state-of-the-art technology to send messages. They hire engineers, software
professionals, and specialists from everywhere to cause havoc on humanity. After
Snowdens disclosure terrorists have changed their routes and channels, stopped
using US email service clients.
In the light of these developments it is unfair to restrict our governments in activity and
tie them in codes. Terrorists have no codes. We need to give an equal footing to our
governments so they can protect the people effectively.
And how much do we lose by sharing the phone metadata with the government?
Researches support that it is not a matter of grave concern for majority of the
population. If that is the price that we have to pay for our security, it is not much. NSA
has had quite a few successes because of its surveillance activities. Because of the high
Intel it led NSA directly to the 2011 capture in Abbottabad of Muhammad Tahir Shahzad,
a Pakistan-based bomb builder, and Umar Patek, a suspect in a 2002 terrorist bombing
on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Sometimes to fight evil, it is necessary to take similar measures.
Snowdens disclosure was unnecessary and bloated.
CONCLUSIONS:
Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or criminal

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1) Snowden acts were aimed at the betterment of the people. His intentions were
clear and in line with the spirit of upholding the constitutional law.
2) Whistleblowing acts need to be inclusive of defense and government officials.
Espionage act is archaic. If US laws were liberal and gave a chance of fair trial,
Snowden would not have taken refuge in a foreign country. A lot of damage could
have been averted which was caused by the disclosure on a global platform.
3) National surveillance is not categorically wrong. We need to understand that
freedom and safety comes at a dear price. This price is in terms of liberty. But
internal systems should be put in place so that the power is not abused. There is a
thin line that should not be crossed. The actions should be directed towards the
objective of national security and not of personal interests.
4) International policies and conventions should be put in place for the safety of
whistleblowers.

Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or criminal

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APPENDIX: 1

Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or criminal

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BE Project Report

APPENDIX: 2

Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or criminal

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BE Project Report

Edward Snowden: Whistle-blower or criminal

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