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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

What’s really changed 10 years after the Snowden revelations?

The US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks to European officials via videoconference in June 2014.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks to European officials via videoconference in June 2014. Photograph: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images

It was the day his life changed forever. When Edward Snowden blew the whistle on mass surveillance by the US government, he traded a comfortable existence in Hawaii, the paradise of the Pacific, for indefinite exile in Russia, now a pariah in much of the world.

But 10 years after Snowden was identified as the source of the biggest National Security Agency (NSA) leak in history, it is less clear whether America underwent a similarly profound transformation in its attitude to safeguarding individual privacy. Was his act of self-sacrifice worth it – did he make a difference?

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