Would Whatsapp and Facebook Chat been end-to-end encrypted had it not been for the Snowden leaks? It's hard to say. But personally I believe it wouldn't have ha

Would Whatsapp and Facebook Chat been end-to-end encrypted had it not been for the Snowden leaks? It's hard to say. But personally I believe it wouldn't have happened if the public perception of security had not been altered by his leaks. Another example that affects billions: after the Snowden leaks, Google scrambled to encrypt their intra-datacenter traffic. Before they did so, those billions of end-users would get the green padlock when visiting Gmail, only to have their data snooped as it travelled over Google-owned dark fiber. You are right that UX still dominates all other factors. But I think post-Snowden, there have been many significant improvements to security that affect billions of people.