Edward Snowden published his memoir “Permanent Record” on September 17, 2019 (Constitution Day), through Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company. The book provided Snowden’s first-person account of his life, his work in the intelligence community, his decision to …
Director Oliver Stone’s biographical thriller “Snowden” was released in U.S. theaters, bringing Edward Snowden’s story to mainstream audiences through a Hollywood dramatization starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the NSA whistleblower. The film chronicled Snowden’s journey …
The NSA officially ended its bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata at 11:59 PM on November 29, 2015, as required by the USA Freedom Act passed by Congress in June 2015. The program, which had operated under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act since 2006, systematically collected …
President Barack Obama signed the USA FREEDOM Act into law on June 2, 2015, representing the most significant reform of U.S. surveillance programs since the 1970s and a direct response to Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA mass surveillance. The Act prohibited bulk collection of all …
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled in ACLU v. Clapper that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata was not authorized by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, effectively declaring the surveillance program …
Apple announced that iOS 8 implements encryption so strong that the company itself cannot unlock iPhones or iPads, even when presented with a valid search warrant. This represented a dramatic escalation in the encryption debate and a direct response to NSA surveillance revelations, fundamentally …
Germany’s chief federal prosecutor Harald Range opened a formal criminal investigation into allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, marking the first time a major U.S. ally launched criminal proceedings against American intelligence …
President Obama delivered a major address at the Department of Justice outlining reforms to NSA surveillance programs in response to Edward Snowden’s revelations, but the proposed changes left core bulk collection authorities largely intact while adding modest procedural safeguards. The speech …
The Guardian, citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealed that the National Security Agency was collecting almost 200 million text messages per day from around the world through a program codenamed DISHFIRE. According to the leaked documents from 2011, the program collected “pretty …
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in Klayman v. Obama that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American telephone metadata likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a strongly-worded 68-page opinion, Judge Leon …
Following Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, major tech companies began publishing transparency reports disclosing limited information about government data requests, marking the first time companies could publicly acknowledge FISA court orders. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, …
The Guardian newspaper reported, citing documents obtained from Edward Snowden, that the National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaked NSA memo, dated October 2006, revealed that senior U.S. government officials …
Microsoft and Google filed federal lawsuits challenging government gag orders that prohibited them from disclosing details about Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests and National Security Letters (NSLs) they receive for customer data. The companies argued these blanket nondisclosure …
Declassified documents revealed that Yahoo secretly fought the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2007-2008, challenging the constitutionality of government demands for direct server access to user data. Yahoo argued the demands violated the …
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a scheduled state visit to Washington in response to revelations that the NSA had intercepted her personal phone calls, text messages, and emails, as well as conducting extensive surveillance of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras. The …
Lavabit, an encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden, abruptly shut down rather than comply with federal government demands for the company’s SSL encryption keys, which would have compromised the privacy of all 400,000 users. Founder Ladar Levison announced the closure with a cryptic …
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein apologizing for his March 12, 2013 testimony to Congress, in which he denied that the NSA collected data on millions of Americans. In response to a direct question from Senator Ron …
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden on June 14, 2013, charging him with three felonies: unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized …
Edward Snowden publicly revealed himself as the source behind the explosive NSA surveillance leaks in a 12-minute video interview filmed at the Mira Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and published by The Guardian. The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and CIA technical assistant had flown to Hong Kong on …
The Washington Post and The Guardian simultaneously published explosive revelations about PRISM, a classified program allowing the National Security Agency and FBI to tap directly into the central servers of nine major U.S. internet companies to extract audio, video, photographs, emails, documents, …
Edward Snowden leaked classified NSA documents to The Guardian and Washington Post, exposing the massive PRISM surveillance program that collected electronic communications from major internet companies without warrants. The revelations showed the NSA was systematically collecting phone and internet …
Glenn Greenwald published the first article in The Guardian based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealing a top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) order requiring Verizon to hand over all telephone metadata to the National Security Agency on an “ongoing, daily …
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues classified ruling finding NSA’s warrantless surveillance programs violated the Fourth Amendment and FISA statute on a systematic basis. The court documented that intelligence agencies had misled judges about the scope and nature of surveillance …
James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a groundbreaking front-page New York Times article revealing the NSA had been conducting warrantless surveillance of Americans since 2001 under President Bush’s secret authorization. The story exposed that the NSA, traditionally focused on foreign …
Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card went to George Washington Hospital ICU to pressure hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the NSA surveillance program that the Department of Justice had deemed illegal. Acting Attorney General James Comey raced to the hospital with …
President Bush signed presidential authorization for warrantless surveillance program bypassing FISA courts on October 4, 2001. Created by Dick Cheney, the NSA STELLARWIND program was classified as ’exceptionally controlled information’ and collected phone and internet metadata on …