Also a good conversation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36227166
EDIT: Changed the link to an archive.org version.
What have we learned? Much.
The real question is, what’s changed because of it and how?
A lot changed. Facebook and most sites defaulted to http back then. Now most sites only do https, and even DNS encryption has made great strides.
https is more about security than privacy
the government sucks
Almost nothing. There was no public reaction countering Snowden’s targeting with US state violence, violence that forced him to flee, let alone any forced reduction in domestic spying or secret police activity. Both have probably increased. Nevertheless, self-serving narratives of being “the city on a hill”, a bastion of freedom and democracy, stay intact. It confirmed the biases of people who already knew this was likely happening, and those same people continue to be marginalized by an easily-propagandized public.
