Let’s get those government drones redeployed from watching us to delivering our pizzas, am I right?
Here are some historical cases of government transparency and privacy cases.
- The Pentagon Papers, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, revealed the secret history of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The Nixon administration tried to stop the publication of the papers by the New York Times and the Washington Post, but the Supreme Court ruled that the government had no prior restraint on the press3.
- The Watergate scandal, which broke in 1972, exposed the illegal activities of the Nixon administration, such as wiretapping, burglary, and cover-ups. The investigation by the Senate, the special prosecutor, and the media led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974. The scandal also prompted the passage of several reforms, such as the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Ethics in Government Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act4.
- The Snowden revelations, which began in 2013, disclosed the mass surveillance programs of the U.S. and its allies, such as the PRISM and the XKeyscore. The documents were leaked by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), who fled to Russia. The leaks sparked a global debate on the balance between national security and civil liberties, and led to some reforms, such as the USA Freedom Act and the Privacy Shield5.
1: How the FBI Violated the Privacy Rights of Tens of Thousands of Americans 3: Transparency in Public Administration 4: Government Transparency and Accountability 2: Freedom of Information Act 5: Edward Snowden: Leaks that exposed US spy programme
