Following Snowden: an international survey
| Published date | 14 August 2017 |
| Date | 14 August 2017 |
| Pages | 336-343 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-04-2017-0024 |
| Author | Andrew A. Adams,Kiyoshi Murata,Ana María Lara Palma |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
Following Snowden:
an international survey
Andrew A. Adams
Centre for Business Information Ethics, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
Kiyoshi Murata
School of Commerce, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan, and
Ana María Lara Palma
Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to present the baselineEnglish survey used in the other papers in this special
issue.
Design/methodology/approach –The survey includes yes/no, Likert scale and free text responses,
which wereanalysed quantitatively and qualitatively.
Findings –Respondentsto the survey expressed divergent views of whether they would emulateSnowden,
even thoughmost in all countries believed he had helpedrather than harmed society.
Originality/value –This is the only such broad survey on attitudes to Snowdenof which the authors are
aware.
Keywords Surveillance, Privacy, Edward Snowden
Paper type Research paper
1. An international survey on knowledge of and attitudes to Snowden’s
revelations
In June 2013, The Guardian in the UK and The Washington Post in the USA began
publishing internal electronic documents from the US’signals intelligence (SIGINT)
organisation the National Security Agency (NSA), provided to them by Edward
Snowden who had obtained the documents while employed as a systems
administrator at the NSA for contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. As they have done
previously, the NSA and other parts of the US Government generally will not confirm
or deny the validity of the documents; however, on 21 June 2013, the US Department of
Justice charged Snowden with violating the Espionage Act. The activities detailed in
the documents included activity undertaken by the NSA and its main SIGINT partner
the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and with the SIGINT
agencies of three former British colonies (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), as
well as joint activities with similar agencies in other countries such as Germany’s
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).
This study was supported by the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology, Japan) Programme for Strategic Research Bases at Private Universities (2012-2016)
project “Organisational Information Ethics”S1291006 and the JSPS Grant-in-Aids for Scientific
Research (B) 24330127 and (B) 25285124.
JICES
15,3
336
Received 20 April 2017
Accepted 20 April 2017
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.15 No. 3, 2017
pp. 336-343
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-04-2017-0024
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