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A new book describes reform efforts within America’s growing surveillance state—and advocates for further change to protect citizens’ privacy while maintaining security.

“Because of Snowden, we now know about mass surveillance. The question is: What we going to do about it?”

Before serving as an intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations, Timothy H. Edgar—a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University—defended privacy rights as an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. A cybersecurity expert, Edgar published his new book, Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), this week.

The title refers to Edward Snowden, the former Central Intelligence Agency employee and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who, in 2013, leaked the existence of several mass surveillance programs, including the bulk collection of American telephone records, and revealed details of web surveillance programs. Congress is debating this year whether to renew the legal authority for these programs.

Here, Edgar shares specific recommendations for reforms and his thoughts on why America should become a leader in surveillance reform: