Last week I was having lunch with a friend and some of my friend’s friends. Although my friend and I have pretty similar views, and he knows the kind of work I do, the other people at the table were a pretty good representation of the average, hardworking, work and family-focused, making-it-in-a-tough-economy, everyday American.
Normies, I guess you could call them.
It’s times like this that I’m reminded how I spend so much of my time with people who work in the same field as me, that I don’t always have my finger entirely on the pulse of how the everyman thinks about the world and his place in it.
Lunch conversation turned from work and kids to the fatigue of this election and the constant flood of texts, calls, and commercials interrupting an already busy life. Somebody joked that since they spy on everything we do anyway, they probably already know who we’re voting for—even if we haven’t decided yet. You know, like how you can just think about something and then the next time you open a social app, you get an ad for it.
Freaky stuff, for sure.
Anyway, that led to talk about Flock cameras, data centers, and the seemingly endless expansion of the surveillance state into virtually every aspect of our homes and lives. (Like, what do you mean every single appliance I buy is collecting and transmitting data about me?) Still, it’s good to know that outrage over intrusion into privacy has become pretty mainstream and even, in some cases, nonpartisan.
Good. That’s a start.
If I’m being completely honest though, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit annoyed. I wondered, as I listened to people I didn’t know make arguments and observations about things so near and dear to me and my life’s work, how many of them were quick to label Edward Snowden a traitor back in 2013 when he blew up his life and future to tell us all that we were being spied on?
The government and media colluded so beautifully back then to manufacture “patriotic” outrage over the fact that someone with Top Secret clearance had “leaked state secrets” that many people didn’t even care what those secrets were! I didn’t fall for it, and I know a lot of you didn’t either. In fact, Snowden’s sacrifice was so meaningful to me that when I started my work on The Tuttle Twins Guide to Courageous Heroes, his was one of the first chapters I wrote. I can’t think of a lesson more valuable to a young person than learning that there are real people who risk everything to help people—even the ones who hate them and wish them harm—stay free.
There are few things more courageous or more heroic than that.
The crazy thing is that almost nobody realizes that the surveillance Snowden risked everything to expose was utterly mild compared to what we have today.
Back in 2013, the big reveal was basically that the NSA was secretly collecting records of who Americans called and when, and monitoring their email and internet use. So what most people have by now given a dozen random apps permission to do. Oof.
Now though? Now it is so much worse.
The warrantless surveillance authority at the center of the Snowden files, Section 702, didn't go away—Congress renewed it last year and broadened who the government can force to help it spy, despite objections from privacy hawks in both parties.
Police departments now blanket entire towns with Flock cameras that photograph every passing car and store a running history of where you've driven. A company called Clearview scraped billions of our faces off the internet and sells police the power to pick you out of a crowd. Federal agencies that used to need a warrant to track your phone now just buy your location from data brokers instead. Heck, even your own car logs where you go and sells it. General Motors got caught giving driver data to brokers who passed it to insurers, who turned around and used it to raise people's rates! Your doorbell, your TV, your thermostat, and every "smart" appliance you own phone your habits home. The airport is swapping your boarding pass for facial scans while people are being handcuffed in their own driveways because a facial-recognition system placed them at a crime scene while they were napping on their couch.
And let’s not forget what happened when a group of Canadians donated to a protest their government didn't like. Coming soon to an American city near you!
None of this happened because of a dramatic vote or a declared emergency. It arrived one convenience, one "for your safety," and one too-long-to-read Terms of Service at a time, until the surveillance state Snowden burned his life down to warn us about became the ordinary wallpaper of American life..
The normies I had lunch with are feeling uneasy, and for good reason. What they're missing is the fuller picture of how we got here, and how much worse it could get.
Fitting then, that our brand-new Tuttle Twins book comes available for pre-order today and just happens to be about the right free people have to privacy.
It might just be the most important thing we’ve ever published.
The Tuttle Twins and the Shield of Liberty, is based on the work of two young lawyers from the late 1800s named Louis D. Brandeis and Samuel D. Warren who were early critics of the surveillance state. It’s dedicated to Edward Snowden.
In it, Ethan and Emily find themselves in a town where cameras are going up on every corner, all promising to stop a string of livestock thefts and keep everyone safe. Trading a little privacy for security feels perfectly reasonable—right up until the frozen bank accounts start, a fake video, and an arrest that never should have happened. By the last page, a kid understands in his gut why privacy is the shield that stands in front of every other freedom he has, how the Constitution was built to guard it, and why it falls to ordinary people (not so-called authorities) to keep that shield up.
It's the lesson Snowden taught the hard way, told so a ten-year-old gets it years before anyone asks him to trade his freedom for a promise or potential security.
You can Pre-order The Tuttle Twins and the Shield of Liberty here!
A decade ago, millions of Americans called Edward Snowden a traitor for telling the truth about what their government was doing, but it’s not too late to raise a generation that appreciates truth-tellers and has the courage to defend one of our most basic human rights.
The Tuttle Twins and the Shield of Liberty is a great place to start.
— Connor
