Last Updated: 22 Sep 2015

This is the 1st blog of the MyShadow series: "Why shrugging at the Snowden revelations is a bad idea"

Author: Maria Xynou, Researcher at Tactical Tech

Let's be honest. Following the Snowden revelations, how many of us thought or said:

"I'm not surprised! We already knew we were under surveillance!"?

Likely many of us.

True, some already knew that most countries in the world have had surveillance laws and schemes in place for a while – especially following the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Furthermore some knew about ECHELON from European Union reports or from various rumors. Some had also heard about the NSA's Total Information Awareness (TIA) programme – renamed as the Terrorism Information Awareness programme - as reported in various newspapers. These general topics and some specific surveillance programs are of course part of a larger discourse over many years - in some cases ongoing for decades.

Yet, even those of us who were aware of all of this were shocked when Snowden started leaking confidential documents about the NSA and GCHQ's secret surveillance. And here are some reasons why: