by Rishabh Gharekhan

This podcast explains the story of Edward Snowden and the PRISM program. In 2013, Snowden leaked classified government secrets exposing the National Security Agency’s widespread mass surveillance programs. PRISM was one of these. Using discreet legal pathways, the NSA was tapping directly into the servers of American companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft. Snowden’s revelations shocked the American public due to the violations of privacy. The exposure of this program led to quick damage control. However, the damage had already been done which has continued to raise questions over how safe our data is online.

Works Cited:

Fitzpatrick, A. (2013, June 7). NSA Leak: Internet Giants Let Government Tap Your Data. Mashable. https://mashable.com/2013/06/06/prism-tech-companies-data-mining/?europe=true

Greenwald, G., & MacAskill, E. (2017, December 29). NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

Greenwald, G., MacAskill, E., & Poitras, L. (2021, March 24). Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

Lee, T. (2013, June 6). How Congress unknowingly legalized PRISM in 2007. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/06/how-congress-unknowingly-legalized-prism-in-2007/

Seifert, D. (2013, June 7). Secret program gives NSA, FBI backdoor access to Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft data. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/6/6/4403868/nsa-fbi-mine-data-apple-google-facebook-microsoft-others-prism

Snowden Timeline. (2019, January 9). Government Accountability Project. https://whistleblower.org/snowden-timeline/

West, A. (2013, July 9). 17 disturbing things Snowden has taught us (so far). The World from PRX. https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-07-09/17-disturbing-things-snowden-has-taught-us-so-far

Whittaker, Z. (2013, June 8). PRISM: Here’s how the NSA wiretapped the Internet. ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/prism-heres-how-the-nsa-wiretapped-the-internet/

Audio:

Orange Free Sounds:

• Chillout Downtempo Music Loop


• Mysterious Synth Pad


• Tremolo Electric Guitar Music Loop


• Symbiosis Ambient Lounge

Bensound:

• Enigmatic

Fesliyan Studios:

• Land of Fantasy

Obama Clip:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENTl5JKzlQ&ab_channel=ABCNews

News Clip (June 6, 2013 – 100 Seconds of News):

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi5xHW2Ak9s&t=36s&ab_channel=TPMTV

Further Reading:

• https://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/


• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance


• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html

Image: “Edward Snowden,” Mike Mozart, Flickr CC BY