- The reauthorization of the Patriot Act and its controversial provisions is approaching on June 1st
- Section 215 of the Patriot Act, also known as the Library Records Provision, allows the government to collect records of any tangible things
- The government can collect and store phone records for every American under Section 215
- Edward Snowden leaked classified information about government surveillance programs in 2013
- Many Americans are not concerned about government surveillance, but lack knowledge about Edward Snowden and his actions
- Julian Assange is not Edward Snowden and should not be confused with him
- Balancing privacy and safety is difficult, and some reasonable restrictions may be necessary
- The NSA argues that they have restrictions on their operations, such as approval from the FISA Court for foreign surveillance.

- The FISA Court has approved over 35,000 applications for foreign surveillance and only rejected 12.
- There is widespread agreement that Section 215 needs to be reformed.
- The Section 215 telephone records program has only disrupted 1 terror plot.
- If Section 215 is renewed without serious public debate, it sets a dangerous precedent.
- The public debate on this issue has been lacking.
- Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, is interviewed in Russia.
- The NSA's surveillance capabilities make citizens vulnerable.
- Domestic surveillance and foreign surveillance are different issues.
- Americans care less about foreign surveillance.
- Snowden evaluated all the documents in the archive.

- Edward Snowden discusses his evaluation of the documents in the archive and the importance of understanding their contents
- He defends his decision to hand over the documents to journalists and highlights their responsibility in reporting the information securely
- Snowden acknowledges that mistakes can happen in journalism, but believes it is necessary to take risks in order to protect liberty
- He expresses satisfaction in the global response to the revelations, including in America, but acknowledges that not everyone is informed about his actions
- Snowden discusses the challenge of communicating complex technical information to the public and the need for a proper conversation about government surveillance
- He addresses concerns about the NSA's access to private photos, particularly "dick pics," and explains how various NSA programs can collect and store this type of personal information.

- The responsibility of handling metadata is discussed
- The potential for personal information to be tracked and recorded is highlighted
- The importance of protecting values and not changing behavior due to government surveillance is emphasized
- The need for a rational conversation about privacy and government regulation is urged
- The video ends with a joke about being on a government watch list and a request to be taken off the list

- The reauthorization of the controversial Patriot Act provisions is approaching on June 1st.
- Section 215 allows the government to collect records of tangible things, including phone records for every American.
- Edward Snowden leaked classified information about government surveillance programs in 2013.
- Many Americans lack knowledge about Snowden and his actions.
- Balancing privacy and safety is difficult, and some reasonable restrictions may be necessary.
- The NSA argues that they have restrictions on their operations, such as FISA Court approval.
- There is widespread agreement that Section 215 needs to be reformed.
- The Section 215 telephone records program has only disrupted 1 terror plot.
- If Section 215 is renewed without debate, it sets a dangerous precedent.
- Snowden discusses his evaluation of the leaked documents and the responsibility of journalists in reporting them securely.
- He believes it is necessary to take risks in order to protect liberty.
- Snowden addresses concerns about the NSA's access to personal photos and the potential for tracking personal information.
- The importance of protecting values and having a rational conversation about privacy and government regulation is emphasized.

There are very few government checks on what America’s sweeping surveillance programs are capable of doing. John Oliver sits down with Edward Snowden to discuss the NSA, the balance between privacy and security, and dick-pics.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Our main story tonight is government surveillance, and I realize most people would rather have a conversation about literally any other topic, including, is my smartphone giving me cancer, to which the answer is, probably, or do goldfish suffer from depression, to which the answer is, yes, but very briefly.

But the fact is, it is vital that we have a discussion about this now, because an important date is just around the corner.

1 big date to circle on the calendar when it comes to a very controversial subject, the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and all of the controversial provisions therein.

June 1st, they've got to come to an agreement to reauthorize or curtail this program.

Yes, some controversial provisions within the Patriot Act are set to expire on June the 1st.

So circle that date on your calendars, everyone.

And while you're at it, circle June 2nd as well, because that's Justin Long's birthday.

You all forgot last year, and he f**king noticed.

Now, over the last couple of years, you've probably heard a lot about strange-sounding programs such as X-Key Score, Muscular, Prism, and Mystic, which are coincidentally also the names of some of Florida's least popular strip clubs.

Welcome to X-Key Score, Our dancers are fully unredacted, and Tuesday is wing night.

But if you don't mind, I would like to refresh your memory over some of this.

And let's start by focusing on the most controversial portion of the Patriot Act that is up for renewal, Section 215, which I'm aware sounds like the name of an Eastern European boy band.

There's the cute 1, the bad boy, the 1 who strangled a potato farmer, and the 1 without an iron deficiency.

But the contents of the real Section 215 is actually even more sinister.

It's called Section 215, nicknamed the Library Records Provision, which allows the government to require businesses to hand over records of any, quote, any tangible things, including books, records, papers, documents, and other items.

If that sounds broad, it's because it was very much written that way.

Section 215 says the government can ask for any tangible things, so long as it's for an investigation to protect against international terrorism, which is basically a blank check.

It's like letting a teenager borrow the car on the strict condition that they only use it for car-related activities.

Okay, Mom and Dad, I'm gonna use this for a hand job in the Wendy's parking lot, but that is car-related, so I think I'm covered.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Section 215 is overseen by a secret intelligence court known as the FISA Court, and they've interpreted it to mean the government could basically collect and store phone records for every American, the vast majority of whom, of course, have no connection to terrorism.

Unless Aunt Cheryl has been gravely mischaracterizing the activities of her needlepoint club.

It's a sleeper cell, isn't it, Aunt Cheryl?

-♪ ♪ -♪ Now, the government will point out that under 215, they hold phone records and not the calls themselves.

What, the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls.

They are not looking at people's names, and they're not looking at content.

Yes, but that's not entirely reassuring, because you can extrapolate a lot from that information.

If they knew that you called your ex 12 times last night between 1 and 4 a.m.

For a duration of 15 minutes each time, they can be fairly sure that you left some pretty pathetic voicemails.

I don't care who's monitoring this call, Vicky!

Now, the Patriot Act was written just after 9-11, and for years, it was extended and reauthorized with barely a passing thought.

In fact, it became so routine, that when it was extended In 2011, 1 newscast just tacked it onto the end of a report about a presidential trip abroad.

Chip Reid, CBS News, traveling with the president in Deauville, France.

Also in France, by the way, President Obama signed into law a four-year extension of the Terrorism fighting patriot act.

He threw that in like a mother telling her grown daughter that her childhood pet just died.

But all of that was before the public was made aware of what the government's capabilities actually were.

Edward Snowden has just taken responsibility for 1 of the biggest government leaks in US history.

We learned that the government has the capacity to track virtually every American phone call and to scoop up impossibly vast quantities of data across the internet.

Revelations that the NSA eavesdropped on world leaders.

If you've ever been to the Bahamas, the NSA could have recorded your phone calls and stored them for up to a month.

Yet, all that information was exposed by Edward Snowden, and it is still kind of incredible that a 29-year-old contractor was able to steal top-secret documents from an organization that literally has the word security in its name.

Clearly, that was not great for them, because the only place where it should be that easy for employees in their 20s to steal is a Lidz store.

We're not exactly selling Fabergé eggs here.

It is still unclear exactly how many documents Edward Snowden stole, although he has consistently tried to reassure people that he put them in good hands.

Honestly, I don't want to be the person making the decisions on what should be public and what shouldn't.

Which is why, rather than publishing these on my own, or putting them out openly, I'm running them through journalists.

Now that sounds great, but of course, it's not a fail-safe plan, as was proven when the New York Times published this slide, but did such a sloppy job of blocking out redacted information that some people were able to read the information behind that black bar, which concerned how the U.S.

Was monitoring Al-Qaeda in Mosul, a group now known as ISIS.

So essentially, a national security secret was leaked because no 1 at the Times knows how to use Microsoft Paint.

--LAUGHTER --And look, you can think that Snowden did the wrong thing or did it in the wrong way, but The fact is, we have this information now, and we no longer get the luxury of pleading ignorance.

It's like you can't go to SeaWorld and pretend that Shamu's happy anymore, when we now know at least half the water in her tank is whale tears.

But here's the thing, it's now 2 years later, and it seems like we've kind of forgotten to have a debate over the content of what Snowden leaked.

A recent Pew report found that nearly half of Americans say they're not very concerned, or not at all concerned about government surveillance.

Which is fine, if that's an informed opinion.

But I'm not sure that it is, because we actually sent a camera crew to Times Square to ask some random passers-by who Edward Snowden was and what he did.

I've heard the name, I just can't picture, think right now, exactly what it is.

Just for the record, that wasn't cherry-picking.

That was entirely reflective of everyone we spoke to.

Although, to be fair, some people did remember his name, they just couldn't remember why.

He revealed some information that shouldn't have been revealed.

I think from what I remember is the information that

he shared was detrimental to our military secrets and keeping our soldiers and our country safe.

Edward Snowden revealed a bunch of secrets, I guess, or information into WikiLeaks.

Edward Snowden leaked, he's in charge of WikiLeaks.

Edward Snowden revealed a lot of documents through WikiLeaks.

The WikiLeaks guy is Julian Assange, and you do not want to be confused with him.

Partly because he was far less careful than Snowden in what he released and how, and partly because he resembles a sandwich bag full of biscuit dough wearing a Stevie Nicks wig.

Even Benedict cumberbatch could not make him likable.

That was supposed to be physically impossible.

But I don't blame people for being confused.

We've been looking at this story for the last 2 weeks, and it is hard to get your head around.

Not just because there are so many complicated programs to keep track of, but also because there are no easy answers here.

We all, naturally, want perfect privacy and perfect safety.

It's like how you can't have a badass pet falcon and an adorable pet vole named Herbert.

Either you have to lose 1 of them, which obviously you don't want to do, or you have to accept some reasonable restrictions on both of them.

Now, to be fair, the NSA will argue that just because they can do something, doesn't mean they do do it, and that there are restrictions on their operations, such as the FISA Court, which must approve requests for foreign surveillance.

But, in 34 years, that court has approved over 35,000 applications and only rejected 12.

Yes, much like Robert Durst's second wife, the FISA court is alarmingly accepting.

-♪ ♪ -♪♪ Listen, Robert, I'm not gonna ask you too many questions.

I'm just gonna give you the benefit of a doubt that you clearly don't deserve.

At least tell him to blink and burp less.

The burping might be the most troubling thing about that show.

So maybe it is time for us to talk about where the limits should be.

And the best place to start would be Section 215.

Not just because it's the easiest to understand, but because there is widespread agreement, it needs to be reformed.

From the president, to Ted Cruz, to both the ACLU and the NRA, to even the guy who wrote the thing in the first place.

I was the principal author of the Patriot Act.

Congress never did intend to allow bulk collections when it passed Section 215.

And no fair reading of the text would allow for this program.

That's the legislative equivalent of Lewis Carroll seeing the teacups ride at Disneyland and saying, this has to be reined in.

No fair reading of my text would allow for this ride.

You've turned my perfectly nice tale of psychedelic pedophilia into a garish vomitorium.

And even the NSA has said that the number of terror plots in the U.S.

That the Section 215 telephone records programs has disrupted is 1.

And it's worth noting that 1 particular plot involved a cab driver in San Diego who gave $8,500 to a terror group.

And that is the shittiest terrorist plot I've ever seen, other than the plot of a good day to die hard.

If we let Section 215 get renewed in its current form without serious public debate, we're in trouble.

Because Section 215 is the canary in the coal mine.

If we cannot fix that, we're not gonna fix any of them.

And the public debate so far has been absolutely pathetic.

A year ago, a former Congresswoman was discussing the 215 program on the news.

This vast collection of data is, not that useful and, infringes, substantially on personal privacy.

I think at this point we should seriously consider not continuing Section 215.

We've got some breaking news out of Miami.

Right now in Miami, Justin Bieber has been arrested on a number of charges.

including resisting arrest and driving under the influence.

He's appearing now before the judge for his bond hearing.

-♪♪♪♪ Oh, 0, actually, you know what?

Bad news, we're gonna have to interrupt your interruption of the Bieber news for a new interruption, this time featuring a YouTube video of a tortoise having sex with a plastic clog.

Beep ♪ -♪ Beep ♪ -♪ Beep ♪ ♪ Beep

♪ That is essentially the current tone of this vitally important debate.

-♪ And again, I'm not saying this is an easy conversation, but we have to have it.

I know this is confusing, And unfortunately, the most obvious person to talk to about this is Edward Snowden, but he currently lives in Russia, meaning if you wanted to ask him about any of these issues, you'd have to fly all the way there to do it, and it is not a pleasant flight.

-...is that last week, I went to Russia to speak to Edward Snowden.

Yes, last week, I spent 48 paranoid hours in Moscow, arguably the last place on Earth where you can find an overweight Joseph Stalin impersonator arguing with an unconvincing fake Lenin.

And after experiencing Russia's famously warm hospitality, I went to meet Edward Snowden, who was supposed to show up in this room at noon.

However, at 5 minutes after the interview was scheduled to begin.

Because my argument is why would he when you think about it?

I've got 2,000 rubles that says he doesn't make it without understanding how much that is.

All I'm saying is, a ten-hour flight for an empty chair, I'm gonna lose my shit.

LAUGHTER OK, it turns out there may be a bit of a problem because our Russian producer booked us in a room directly overlooking the old KGB building and the home of the current Federal Security Bureau.

And we've just been told they know we're here.

Russian KGB is listening, So that happened.

LAUGHTER just if the Russian KGB is listening, ring the fire alarm if he's not coming.

The most famous hero and or traitor in recent American history and I started with a question designed to test his loyalties How much do you miss America?

You know, my country is something that travels with me.

Well, that's already a way too complicated answer.

Let's just let that silence hang in the air.

Not just truck nuts, stars and stripes truck nuts.

That is 2 balls of liberty in a freedom sack.

You know, because of the, ..the quandary, the Kafkaesque nightmare that you're in.

The NSA has the greatest surveillance capabilities that we've ever seen in history.

Now, what they will argue is that they don't use this for nefarious purposes against American citizens.

But the real problem is that they're using these capabilities to make us vulnerable to them, and then saying, while I have a gun pointed at your head, I'm not going to pull the trigger.

Because you applied for a job at the NSA.

So you clearly see an inherent value in that shadowy organisation.

I worked with mass surveillance systems against Chinese hackers.

I saw that, you know, these things do have some purpose.

And you want your spies to be good at spying, to be fair.

What you don't want is you don't want them spying inside their own country.

Spies are great when they're on our side, but we can never forget that they're incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous, and if they're off the leash, they can end up coming after us.

But just to be clear, we're talking about 2 different things here, domestic surveillance and foreign surveillance.

Because domestic surveillance, Americans give some of a shit about.

Foreign surveillance, they don't give any remote shit about.

Well, the second question is, when we talk about foreign surveillance, are we applying it in ways that are beneficial...

I mean, that's the question there, isn't it?

The question is, are these programs valuable?

Are we going to be safer when we're spying on UNICEF and lawyers who are talking about the price of shrimp and clove cigarettes?

I don't think people will say that's good.

I think they'll say, I definitely don't care.

What some people do care about is whether Snowden considered the adverse consequences of leaking so much information at once.

How many of those documents Have you actually read?

I've evaluated all the documents that are in the archive.

Well, I do understand what I turned over.

But there's a difference between understanding what's in the document and reading what's in the document.

Right, because when you're handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them.

I think it's fair to be concerned about, did this person do enough, were they careful enough,

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Government Surveillance: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)