EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The US president, Barack Obama, has played down tensions with Russia and China over the Ed Snowden saga.

He says Russia should extradite the former CIA contractor as a matter of course and doesn't want to engage in a diplomatic war over the issue.

Ed Snowden is believed to be spending his sixth day at a transit hotel inside a Moscow airport. He is on the run after exposing the US government's huge phone and internet surveillance program - but has his decision been worth it?

North America correspondent Ben Knight reports.

BEN KNIGHT, REPORTER: The White House has been using some pretty tough talk in its attempts get Edward Snowden sent back to the United States.

But now Barack Obama is trying hard not to rock the diplomatic boat.

BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT: We've got a whole lot of business that we do with China and Russia and I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we are trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues.

BEN KNIGHT: Barack Obama says he hasn't personally called Russia's Vladimir Putin or China's leader, Xi Jinping, to discuss the matter.

BARACK OBAMA: I shouldn't have to. This is something that routinely is dealt with between law enforcement officials in various countries.

BEN KNIGHT: The president remains determined to catch Edward Snowden, but he's ruled out more fanciful options.

BARACK OBAMA: No, I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker.

BEN KNIGHT: Edward Snowden has exiled himself to a life in the shadows, separated from everyone and everything he knew and always looking over his shoulder.

It's a hell of a decision to make at just 30 years of age. So was it worth it? Are Americans grateful to Edward Snowden for exposing for them the depths of Government surveillance of their lives?

Well it depends where you look. The papers and cable news channels are full of the story.

NEWSREADER 1: At the heart of the domestic surveillance controversy...

COMMENTATOR: They told us they weren't collecting any data on American citizens...

NEWSREADER 2: This Sunday we are covering the breaking news this morning, NSA leaker Edward Snowden...

BEN KNIGHT: But polls consistently show a majority of Americans think Edward Snowden should be prosecuted for what he's done.

On the other hand, it's hard to find evidence that people care that much about it any way.

Here is what Barack Obama said when the story first broke.

BARACK OBAMA: I specifically said that one of the things that we're going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy. Because there are some trade-offs involved.

BEN KNIGHT: But where is the debate? Where is the outrage? Do Americans simply not care?

CARROLL DOHERTY, PEW RESEARCH INSTITUTE: There is concern. I mean there is concern about this government program. It's broad and you know there is an uneasiness about how far it's going.

But when you mention terrorism and you say okay, if you had to choose, give up a little privacy for terrorist defence or maintain your privacy at the expense possibly of having a less rigorous or less staunch terrorism defence, they opt for terrorism defences.

VOX POP: You want a secure nation, you want them to protect you, there are some rights that have to disappear.

BEN KNIGHT: It's summer in Washington, the time for an American rite of passage - bringing the kids to the nation's capital to show them the monuments. But explaining what those monuments stand for isn't so easy any more.

VOX POP 2: We can't have freedom and security. You have to have one or the other. I would rather be secure than completely free.

BEN KNIGHT: That's a big change for this country, isn't it. I mean here you are walking around Washington and all of these monuments, which are nothing if not testaments to the freedom and the ideals and constitution.

So did you ever find a time when you thought you would be saying that?

VOX POP 2: Yeah, on September 12, 2001.

BEN KNIGHT: Which is not to say they are happy about it.

VOX POP 3: Now every time I pick up a phone I'm wondering are they, not so much listening in but monitoring what I'm doing, more things.

For our safety, I understand why they're doing it, but I'm more concerned now about how other countries are going to handle that news. That's what kind of gets me a little bit.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER US PRESIDENT (archival): And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us...

BEN KNIGHT: The debate about trading off freedom for security is, of course, far from new in the United States. It raged through the Bush era with the creation of the patriot act and the warrantless wire taps.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been at the forefront.

MICHELLE RICHARDSON, LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL, ACLU: This is a game changer. We've always warned them that this was a possibility, but now that they have seen it in black and white and you have this court order that says every American's phone records every day - people are invigorated, we have members of Congress coming forward who have always supported the patriot act saying I didn't know. That's not what I intended this tool to be.

BEN KNIGHT: But the trade-off isn't just about sacrificing privacy for security any more. Some things are even harder to give up.

CARROLL DOHERTY: The reality is that especially again for young people or in the digital era, that there's no choice for most Americans other than to be online and to be active.

There is a sense that a lot of online communication is not exactly private these days and so I think you have - that's part of the context for these responses.

BEN KNIGHT: So people, you think, would not really have been that surprised by these revelations?

CARROLL DOHERTY: Well, they know that commercial companies are extracting their data and so I think there is a certain, you know, price of doing business attitude among the public about this.

BEN KNIGHT: Ben Knight, Lateline.