Truth be told, prior to this course, I had no knowledge and really, no interest in the works of Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, etc. It’s a dangerous mix really, ignorance and indifference. However, given the fact that this would be a major component of the syllabus, I went out and sought some answers, namely why is it that there are two sides of this debate if, from what I gather on the online communities I frequent, there is an overwhelming amount of support for Snowden and the other whistle-blowers.

It basically boils down to the fact that when Snowden left with all the classified information, he left with a LOT of it, some of which good (NSA Prism program) which let the public in on privacy issues that concern them and some of them bad (sensitive US defence information).