Book Review: Dark Mirror By Barton Gellman

"We have a very extensive capability of intercepting messages wherever they may be in the airwaves. 
Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything-telephone, conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide.
If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology." (Senator Frank Church-Nixon Era Statement and Warning- 1975)

"The Snowden effect shifted popular culture. It brought about legal, diplomatic, political and legislative  challenges to the prevailing model at the NSA. Alongside all that, and perhaps most significantly, came demand for greater resistance in the private sector against NSA bulk surveillance techniques. Security and privacy became marketing points for the internet giants."

History repeats itself and since 1975 the giants became bigger, the monsters enlarged, the overseas accessibilities more brazen. 

Or as Ledgett noted: "If you really want to prevent a surveillance state that could be abused by a tyrant, the only thing is to not have surveillance." 

So, with this noted this began slow and I almost took a DNF as I felt like I was on surveillance hired to listen in on others conversations without inclusivity.

It began to become slightly more interesting midway and finally picked up steam towards the end but I still felt like Snowden's conversations were odd and bizarre and nothing new came out of this that we haven't already known. The government our government is over reaching, is too big, is not transparent and in plain English is abusing its own powers.

Thank you to Barton, the pub, NetGalley, and Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.