Famous Quotes & Sayings

Edward Snowden

I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines.

Edward Snowden

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

Edward Snowden

Ending mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen. Yet while we have reformed this one program, many others remain.

Edward Snowden

We need the security standards to apply to the internet. We need to be able to trust that when we send our emails through Verizon, that Verizon isn't sharing with the NSA, that Verizon isn't sharing them with the FBI or German intelligence or French intelligence or Russian intelligence or Chinese intelligence.

Edward Snowden

These [NSA] programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power.

Edward Snowden

My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.

Edward Snowden

Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President

Edward Snowden

The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything.

Edward Snowden

The community of technical experts who really manage the internet, who built the internet and maintain it, are becoming increasingly concerned about the activities of agencies like the NSA or Cyber Command, because what we see is that defense is becoming less of a priority than offense.

Edward Snowden

Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Dianne Feinstein

It is abundantly clear that a total review of all intelligence programs is necessary so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community.

Dianne Feinstein

I am not a high-tech techie, but I have been told that is not possible.

Dianne Feinstein

There is no more direct or honest person than Jim Clapper.

Jan Schakowsky

Why did we not know that heads of state were being eavesdropped on, spied on? We are the intelligence committee and we didn't know that.

Elizabeth Warren

Congress must go further to protect the right to privacy, to end the NSA's dragnet surveillance of ordinary Americans, to make the intelligence community more transparent and accountable.

Bruce Schneier

We no longer know whom to trust. This is the greatest damage the NSA has done to the Internet, and will be the hardest to fix.

Barton Gellman

The NSA's business is 'information dominance,' the use of other people's secrets to shape events.

Al Franken

I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people.

Edward Snowden

If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.

Edward Snowden

They still have negligent auditing, they still have things going for a walk, and they have no idea where they're coming from and they have no idea where they're going. And if that's the case, how can we as the public trust the NSA with all of our information, with all of our private records, the permanent record of our lives?

Edward Snowden

The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.

Edward Snowden

I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.

Edward Snowden

I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.

Edward Snowden

We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.

Edward Snowden

You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.

Edward Snowden

I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things.

Conan O'Brien

Sales of George Orwell's 1984 have skyrocketed. It's true. So the fallout from the (NSA spying) scandal is worse than we thought. It's forcing Americans to read.

Edward Snowden

I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA. I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it.

David Letterman

Now all of us can talk to the NSA -- just by dialing any number.

Angela Merkel

We need trust among allies and partners. Such trust now has to be built anew.

Gail Collins

The IRS targeting certain groups for harassment because of their politics would be unfair. If we found out the NSA was keeping special tabs on everyone who worshiped at a mosque or took a Bible trip through the Middle East, you'd have an uprising.

Francois Hollande

What is at stake is preserving our relations with the United States. They should not be changed because of what has happened. But trust has to be restored and reinforced.

Jay Carney

... Clapper has been straight and direct in the answers that he's given, and has actively engaged in an effort to provide more information about the programs that have been revealed through the leak of classified information