Surveillance questions snowball: 5 stories you may have missed

08-06-2013 • http://chrisinmaryville.net/

As former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden settles into a new, albeit temporary, home in Russia, he’s left a storm of questions about mass surveillance in his wake. Part of the famous fugitive’s deal with Moscow is that he’s not allowed to release information harmful to the United States during his one-year reprieve in the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. But before Snowden left the transit zone in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for a more hospitable location in Russia, he released a torrent of documents about the United States’ use of mass surveillance — further stirring up a surveillance controversy he ignited in early June. In the past week, media outlets published shocking new details based on the documents from Snowden, while U.S. officials continued to struggle with the fallout by publishing documents of their own. Here’s a look at the top five mass surveillance stories from the past few days.