Reflections on a Decade of Snowden's Impact on Surveillance.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Edward Snowden's initial leaks about the US government's surveillance of American citizens' communications. Since then, there have been reforms, including the end of bulk collection of Americans' phone records and the sunsetting of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The Freedom Act required the federal government to declassify and release "significant" opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and authorized the appointment of independent amici. However, the Snowden leaks revealed that America's "ordinary system of checks and balances doesn't work very well for secret national security programs," and there is still concern about what other rights-violating activities have been taking place in secret.
