Report of a debate on Snowden's actions by ACM members

Abstract

In 2012 Edward Snowden starting releasing a cache of computer files to a small number of journalists, which he claimed to have copied from servers at the US' National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA have disputed the context or interpretation of some of the material published by the journalists, but have confirmed that Snowden had previously worked at the agency as an employee of an external firm Booz Hamilton. The result of Snowden's revelations have included a large scale debate about the activities of both the US' NSA and their partner agency in the UK (Government Communications Headquarters) in monitoring the communications of individuals and organisations worldwide. ACM SIGCAS makes an Award each year called the "Making a Difference Award". Typically this has gone to a researcher in computer ethics or a practitioner or researcher in some other field of computer science whose work has had a significant socially beneficial impact. In 2013 some members of SIGCAS engaged in an online debate about whether Snowden would be a worth recipient of this award. The arguments put forth in this debate illuminate the divided opinions regarding Snowden's actions in the general population are also present in the computer ethics community. A distillation of the arguments put forward are presented in this piece without individual attribution to the commenters.