Edward Snowden leaks at 10 years: More data more controls

Snowden’s documents showed the US was able to tap into the phones of allied leaders and that the NSA had a program called Prism that collected user data from Internet giants like Google and Facebook – with and without their agreement. — AFP

WASHINGTON: In 2013 US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden stunned the world with revelations that the massive US spy apparatus was secretly sucking up communications and private data on people around the world, from the lowest social media poster to the phone calls of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Snowden showed no one was safe from electronic prying by the National Security Agency, least of all Americans, whose private communications were supposedly constitutionally protected.