(10.19) How did mass surveillance change after Edward Snowden’s revelations—and where will it go from here? This Thursday at Books on the Square meet author Timothy H. Edgar where he will be discussing his book, “Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance, and the Struggle to Reform the NSA.”
Civil liberties activist Timothy Edgar describes how he tried to make a difference by going inside America’s growing surveillance state as an intelligence official in his new book, Beyond Snowden. Edgar explains how Snowden’s leaks of top secret documents that to reforms that made the NSA more transparent, more accountable, more protective of privacy—and, contrary to conventional wisdom, actually strengthened the NSA by making it more effective. While the reforms implemented by the Obama administration were a good first step, much more needs to be done to prevent abuse.
Timothy H. Edgar is a former national security and intelligence official, cybersecurity expert, privacy lawyer and civil liberties activist. Edgar joined the American Civil Liberties Union and spent five years fighting in Congress against abuses in the “war on terror.”
Edgar is currently a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and serves as the Academic Director for Law and Policy in Brown’s Executive Master of Cybersecurity program.
7pm, Thursday, October 19, Books on the Square, 471 Angell Street, (directions)