--- title: Edward Snowden and the NSA Can Both Be Right description: Both the NSA collection programs and Snowden’s revelations have done more to advance the public good than to harm it. canonical: https://time.com/2953495/edward-snowden-privacy-nsa/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-03T14:48:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:11.115Z article:section: Politics og:title: What if Snowden and the NSA Are Both Right? og:description: The NSA collection programs and Snowden’s revelations may have done more to advance the public good than to harm it og:url: https://time.com/2953495/edward-snowden-privacy-nsa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5c3ddc394b55d61/69869a68adae443384544007/edward-snowden-nsa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: Edward Snowden NSA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What if Snowden and the NSA Are Both Right? twitter:description: The NSA collection programs and Snowden’s revelations may have done more to advance the public good than to harm it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5c3ddc394b55d61/69869a68adae443384544007/edward-snowden-nsa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Edward Snowden and the NSA Can Both Be Right > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Snowden Speaks: “There Are Some Things Worth Dying For” [Watch (HLS stream): Snowden Speaks: “There Are Some Things Worth Dying For”](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HEz0anrx.m3u8) (2:28)  _Published 2014-05-30. The man responsible for the largest security breach in U.S. history says he had no choice, and he did it for his country. Wednesday night’s broadcast on NBC marked the first interview by the now infamous NSA leaker with an American network._  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Jul 3, 2014 2:48 PM UTC  US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks to European officials via videoconference during a parliamentary hearing on improving the protection of whistleblowers, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on June 24, 2014. US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks to European officials via videoconference during a parliamentary hearing on improving the protection of whistleblowers, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on June 24, 2014. Frederick Florin—AFP/Getty Images  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Jul 3, 2014 2:48 PM UTC The yearlong debate over the leak of National Security Agency documents by former contractor Edward Snowden has divided the world into two camps. One sees Snowden as a patriotic public servant and believes the NSA programs he revealed are unjustified threats to civil liberties. The other sees Snowden as a traitor and views the NSA programs as necessary for national security. Two reports this week raise a third possibility: that on balance, both the NSA collection programs and Snowden’s revelations have done more to advance the public good than to harm it. On July 1, the independent [agency](http://www.pclob.gov/) charged with overseeing U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism programs to ensure they don’t infringe on privacy and civil liberties found the core of the NSA’s Internet collection programs did neither. In a 196-page report, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board found both the NSA’s collection of Internet traffic from service providers, and the agency’s tapping of undersea cables, complied with the Constitution and Congress’s privacy protections for U.S. persons, and were therefore legal. It further found that the programs were valuable (two board members called them “extremely valuable”) for foreign intelligence and counterterrorism: --- > “” --- On the other side of the equation, the PCLOB report comes less than a week after Adm. Michael Rogers, the head of the NSA, [told](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/us/sky-isnt-falling-after-snowden-nsa-chief-says.html) the New York _Times_ that while the damage done by Snowden was real, he did not believe “the sky is falling” as a result. Earlier in June, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper [told](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/edward-snowden-took-less-than-previously-thought-says-james-clapper/2014/06/05/054cb9f2-ecee-11e3-93d2-edd4be1f5d9e%5Fstory.html) the Washington _Post_ that “we think that a lot of what \[Snowden\] looked at, he couldn’t pull down,” and that “it doesn’t look like \[Snowden\] took as much” as first thought. Taken together, the reports raise the possibility that the NSA programs continue to contribute to U.S. national security and that the damage done by Snowden’s leaks is offset by the public awareness of and debate about surveillance. There are, of course, qualifiers to such a best-of-both-worlds view. For starters, the PCLOB report raised concerns about how the NSA, CIA and FBI search the data once it is collected from the Internet and recommended in some cases curtailing those searches. In January, the PCLOB found that the NSA’s telephone metadata records program was effectively illegal and should be ended. And no one can seriously look at the Snowden revelations without considering the possibility that they damaged national security. A large majority of security experts recently polled by _National Journal_ [believe](http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/insiders-poll/insiders-the-value-of-snowden-s-disclosures-was-not-worth-national-security-damage-20140206) the damage caused by the leaks is greater than the public value of Snowden’s revelations. But the PCLOB said it had not seen any evidence of “bad faith or misconduct” in either the NSA’s Internet collection program or the telephone metadata program: for all the speculative fear of a dystopian future, no one has been maliciously targeted, and the programs haven’t been hijacked by a malevolent Nixonian seeking political advantage. At the same time, Snowden’s revelations have initiated a broad, bipartisan public debate over government surveillance, and he has advanced the idea that in the digital age, privacy is always in play (including the commercial collection and sale of data on virtually every household in the country, as the Federal Trade Commission recently [reported](http://time.com/132160/rise-of-the-private-surveillance-state/)). This may all sound Panglossian, but it fits with the conclusions of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, scourge of secrecy, who believed there were many things that “should be made secret, but then released as soon as the immediate need has passed.” Standing at the threshold of the digital age in 1997, Moynihan [declared](http://fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/foreword.html): --- > “” --- At the least, the new reports raise the possibility that neither side in the continuing debate over Snowden’s revelations has the absolute high ground when it comes to the defense of the public good. ## Transcript The man responsible for the largest security breach in US history says he had no choice and he did it for his country. Had the government not gone too far and over reached uh, we wouldn't be in a situation where whistleblowers were necessary. There are some things worth dying for. And I think the country is one of them. During the hour long broadcast Wednesday night, Snowden told NBC's Brian Williams, in his first interview with an American network, that he felt he had no choice but to expose the NSA's massive surveillance system. US officials have estimated Snowden leaked 1. 7 million top secret documents. And have charged him with espionage, that happened last summer. While Snowden said that he wants to return home, he dodged the question when Williams asked how anxious he is to make a deal to return to the US and leave temporary asylum in Moscow. My priority is not about myself. It's about making sure that these programs are reformed and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind, can be helped by my actions. US Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials denounced Snowden ahead of NBC's broadcast, seeming to seize on pre- released sound bites of Snowden saying he considered himself a patriot. Patriots don't go to Russia. Edward Snowden is a coward, he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country. And if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so. The New York Times reports NBC negotiated with Snowden's associates for months to get the interview, with what the paper called cloak and dagger tactics. Including unannounced plane travel, lost luggage, hotel bookings under assumed names, and two days sequestered in a room with a view of Red Square. Snowden acknowledged concerns he's abroad and receiving shelter from a country most would consider as having uneasy relations with the US at best. However Snowden says he's had no contact with the Russian government and he destroyed his own copies of the documents so no one could leverage him. The political and diplomatic damage in wake of Snowden's leak has been well documented, but government officials won't detail what actual damages the leaked documents caused to national security. Snowden also said if there's any indication his temporary asylum appears in danger of expiring this summer, he'll apply for an extension to stay in Russia. Thanks for watching. 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