After reading the article I would like to highlight a comment that Edward Snowden mentioned regarding his whistleblowing:  “you can’t wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act.”

I believe that Snowden is true to what he believes and shared with the world. Although he broke a policy within his job, he chose to take the risk and face consequences of doing so to expose the truth of his jobs unethical practices in privacy rights. 

In deontological ethics for moral reasoning,  deontology depends on one’s “duty” for ethical reasoning. In deontology intentions are relevant, and consequences do not matter.  Snowden, does not care about the salary he receives, or the job position.  He fled to another country to have time away and wait until the chaos unfolded. He chose to expose the truth “whistleblow” because he truly believed that he was doing the right thing. Regardless of the consequences formed against him.  

After learning about Criminal Justice, I learned a lot about the way whistleblowers are shunned and treated. Even if they are doing the right thing, an organization or their colleagues do not want to associate with them for doing so.  

Thinking about this ethically, he may be hurting the NSA or whoever is in charge (US government) but, on the other hand he is helping and advocating for its citizens.  He is taking the risk to help make a difference within these privacy concerns.