Actually no. I read all 300+ documents leaked by Snowden independent of the news coverage in order to determine if the media narrative was true, as that would be absolutely enraging to me and I needed to decide if I would need to be calling and mailing my representatives/senators daily about this.
I was not able to find evidence in the leaks to substantiate any claims of improper use on everyday citizens. I like to operate on facts, so if there was a leaked document I somehow missed, you can provide a link and I would be happy to review it.
I concur. The purpose of Snowden’s leaks was to educate the masses that mass surveillance is a thing, and privacy should be taken seriously. He did not suggest the government was breaking the law, just that the law permitted surveillance on a scale that the average person probably wasn’t aware of.
As a result, we gained things like GDPR, which will revolutionize privacy worldwide because of its extra-jurisdictional effects. And think about how much more SSL is happening now. Http:// is mostly gone. We have letsencrypt. Google is encrypting all traffic between datacenters. Etc...
But no, Snowden did not reveal anything suggesting widespread illegal surveillance of Americans.
