Internet users have become more cautious about their browsing habits in the age of Edward Snowden, according to a new study from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
After the former NSA contractor leaked details of the agency’s surveillance through PRISM and other classified programs, the study found, interest in topics involving terrorism and national security appeared to plummet, dropping from about 3 million views per month to 2 million afterward. Viewership increased slightly after 14 months, rising back to 2.5 million.
The study, authored by Jonathan Penney and forthcoming in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, analyzed monthly views of Wikipedia articles on 48 topics. Those articles included topics like jihad, al Shabaab, Hezbollah, al Qaeda and nuclear enrichment.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2577390
“Whether these users were typical or atypical Wikipedia users, the findings imply that Wikipedia was a key source of information gathering about … contentious and globally covered armed conflict,” Penney wrote.
He added a criticism of the chilling effect he had observed, writing, “If people are chilled from informing themselves about breaking news stories and other important news events, or from doing simple research online on matters of law, security, and public policy like ‘terrorism,’ then chilling effects also have serious implications for public policy and public deliberation on point.”
The PRISM program revealed by Snowden in 2013 involves the NSA’s collection of Internet communication data from companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other tech giants. Congress is considering whether to renew a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the NSA claims as authorization for the program. In the absence of renewal, the law is set to expire at the end of next year.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2582056
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has also criticized the “Snowden effect” for hampering intelligence-collection efforts, and added in remarks on Monday that he longed for the days of “essentially two mutually exclusive telecommunication systems.”
“If we collected against the one dominated by the Soviet Union, there was almost assurance that we wouldn’t collect information on U.S. persons,” Clapper said. “The challenge for us is picking out the needles from not just one haystack, but hundreds of thousands of haystacks without in any way jeopardizing the liberties and privacy of Americans.”
