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Putting on my conspiracy robe, I would say something like he's a Russian spy, but his roots are well researched and he's the most doxxed person on the planet, s
by kosasbest 5y ago
Putting on my conspiracy robe, I would say something like he's a Russian spy, but his roots are well researched and he's the most doxxed person on the planet, so it's hard to claim he's a Russian spy. The guy seems genuine enough in my eyes, and changed the Internet forever. Like, 90% of sites are encrypted now, and he sparked a privacy revolution after the leaks. He's not a traitor, he's a hero IMHO. Others who claim he's a traitor probably think outfits like the NSA or other agencies are good or benevolent (Hint: they're not).
- _xerces_ 5y agoHe's not a hero, he is a traitor who betrayed the trust placed in him and damaged our national security.
- car_analogy 5y agoOr he's the only one who lived up to that trust, since the surveillance he exposed is unconstitutional. He owes his loyalty to the American people, and what is a better expression of their will: the constitution, or the intelligence agencies?
- mattcwilson 5y agoAre you making the argument that doing the bidding of people who would corruptly misuse their power and lie about it to the American people... is a good thing?
- unmole 5y ago> Like, 90% of sites are encrypted now How much does that have to do with Snowden vs. Let's Encrypt.
- kosasbest 5y agoIt's not just the Internet traffic being encrypted, it's the proliferation of alternative services that have popped up because of the leaks (Protonmail, Tutanota etc). Many services exist now that are because of the revelations, and it's not just about HTTPS. You can very readily install many tools & utilities that thwart the NSA dragnet. Think Signal, Matrix, Cryptomator, self-hosted Nextcloud, AD-blockers like uBlock Origin etc. This guy sparked a privacy revolution.
- unmole 5y ago> Many services exist now that are because of the revelations That's the narrative but doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. > Signal Moxie's original encrypted messaging apps date back to 2010 and Open Whisper was officially started in Jan 2013. > Matrix Came out of an effort to build a unified communications suite for corporations. > Cryptomator Never heard of it. More widely used solutions like Attic/Borg have been around since 2010. > self-hosted Nextcloud Nextcloud was forked from OwnCloud which was started in 2010. > AD-blockers like uBlock Origin Ad Block Plus has been around since 2005. uBlock Origin solves the same problem but does it better. Claiming this had anything to do with Snowden is a very tenuous argument.
- paulryanrogers 5y agoIt can be argued Snowden's disclosures have accelerated adoption of such privacy tools.
- Arathorn 5y agoMatrix actually came out of frustration from implementing RCS, and wondering if we could do better. There was no influence from Snowden; the reason that Matrix is E2EE is just common sense to avoid smearing plaintext data everywhere.
- unmole 5y agoThanks for the correction!