Snowden’s Impact Fades After Three Years

In the three years since the news first broke of Edward Snowden’s trove of leaked National Security Agency documents, debates have raged in the public sphere and within the intelligence community over the contents of what he revealed and what they mean for privacy, transparency, and the future of surveillance.

The Cipher Brief spoke to half a dozen top former NSA officials, cybersecurity experts, and privacy advocates to assess the legacy of the Snowden leaks. As each year passes, Snowden personally becomes less and less relevant, according to the observers, but the issues raised by the leaks remain crucial to discussions revolving around privacy, intelligence, and national security.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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