"Ultimately, arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say"

"Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free."

"The government should be afraid of the people, the people shouldn't be afraid of the government."

"The freedom of a country can only be measured by its respect for the rights of its citizens, and it’s my conviction that these rights are in fact limitations of state power that define exactly where and when a government may not infringe into that domain of personal or individual freedoms that during the American Revolution was called “liberty” and during the Internet Revolution is called “privacy."

"These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power."

"Study after study has show that human behavior changes when we know we’re being watched. Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively *are* less free."

"The truth, though, is that deletion has never existed technologically in the way that we conceive of it. Deletion is just a ruse, a figment, a public fiction, a not-quite-noble lie that computing tells you to reassure you and give you comfort."

- Edward Snowden