Surveillance in the Digital Age

     In the past year alone, revelations as to the scale and methods of digital surveillance have changed the world's views of digital media and how it can be used. A situation that was once considered a conspiracy theorist's paranoid ramblings is, in fact, occurring on a massive scale. Multiple governments and private companies are collecting data (a.k.a. spying) on nearly anyone using the internet. This ability to manipulate digital media for their own agendas has eroded people's trust of groups and leaders that they once assumed were working in their best interest. Encryption of information has become a hot topic amongst internet users now that they know they are being watched.

     Many of the information 'leaks' have come from various sources, but Edward Snowden is the latest to come forward with damning proof. From what I found in my research, Snowden went about informing people in a non-selfish way. Rather than couple the very powerful knowledge he had with an agenda or bias, he simply gave his story to an online newspaper: The Guardian. He provided The Guardian with evidence he collected from working in the National Security Agency (NSA), a program run by the United States government. His findings showed that various U.S. government agencies had set up a multitude of ways to collect very private information about people around the world, including U.S. citizens. To make matters worse, major internet and phone companies have been involved in aiding these data collections, essentially selling their customers privacy for large sums of money.
     Uncomfortable with the idea of having no digital privacy, people are turning to data encryption programs/services to keep their online interactions private. This has spurred what was once a niche industry into a rapidly growing digital service. A direct correlation can be assumed between leaks about digital surveillance and the rising popularity of data encryption, thus greatly affecting the state of digital media as we know it.
Written by Gavin William Young. For more information on the subject: http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/21/snowden-documents-reveal-more-of-the-nsa