A Year Later, Most Americans Think Snowden Did The Right Thing

On anniversary of whistleblowing, 55 percent of Americans say Snowden was right to expose NSA's surveillance program; 82 percent believe they are still being watched.

A year ago this week, contractor Edward Snowden published documents exposing the National Security Agency's PRISM program, which included online surveillance of US citizens. Was he justified in doing so? More than half of Americans believe he was.

According to a survey scheduled to be published this week by research firm YouGov and commissioned by security firm Tresorit, 55 percent of employed Americans believe Snowden was right to expose PRISM. Eighty-two percent believe their personal information is still being analyzed by the US government, and 81 percent believe their personal information is being analyzed by corporations for business purposes.

Nearly one in two employed Americans name constitutional rights as the reason for their support of Snowden’s exposure of PRISM: 44 percent of employed Americans cite their civil rights as key reasons that they support Snowden’s cause. Snowden supporters tend to be younger: Just 20 percent of young adults aged 16-34 believe Snowden’s actions were wrong, compared to 41 percent of adults aged 55 or older.

More than half of those surveyed (51 percent) don’t know if their employers have taken measures to ensure that corporate files are secure. Only 32 percent of respondents report that their employer has taken such steps.

Thirty-seven percent of employed Americans say they have not taken any steps in the last year to ensure personal digital security, according to the survey. Forty percent of employed Americans say they have created stronger passwords, while one in four (26%) have created different passwords for different online accounts.

Tim Wilson is Editor in Chief and co-founder of Dark Reading.com, UBM Tech's online community for information security professionals. He is responsible for managing the site, assigning and editing content, and writing breaking news stories. Wilson has been recognized as one ... View Full Bio