Have you ever considered that your government is violating your rights? Have you ever thought that governments and corporations around the world were working together to spy on millions upon millions of people? If the answer to either of these questions is no, it's time to watch the documentary Citizen Four. If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then it's also time to watch Citizen Four, because it always feels good to have your suspicions confirmed.
In this film we follow Edward Snowden during his first meet up with the press in a hotel in Hong Kong, through the leak, all the way through him taking asylum in Russia. While watching the doc, we almost feel like another report in the hotel room with Snowden; unable to comprehend the technical jargon he is throwing at us, so we just take notes and nod our head. However, once we start to understand the implications of what we're being told, we stop nodding and we start to get angry.
Prior to watching this doc, I had not done any research on Snowden, or looked at the leaked documents/information for two reasons. 1) I most likely would not understand a word of the technical documents, and 2) I don't want to be put on some blacklist. That second justification sounds like a joke, but it is not. Google searches are stored, and provided to NSA. Pretty damn unsettling if you ask me.
The film begs the viewer to ask the question, is my privacy really worth giving up for my safety? That's an incredibly valid and scary question to ask, and one that I don't think anyone wants to answer. After all, our privacy is one of our main freedoms and can we truly say that we are free, if we no longer have the ability to have a private conversation?