No Place to Hide

Published in 2014 by journalist and former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide takes an in-depth look at the shocking documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 and the greater implications behind them. The documents revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting data from hundreds of millions of people, intercepting communication using data centers across the globe, decrypting Internet measures designed to safeguard sensitive data, and violating privacy laws and its own authority. Detailing his own role in the global surveillance disclosures, Greenwald prompts an intense discussion on privacy, the complicity of Internet and telecommunications companies, the role of the media, and the lengths intelligence agencies are willing to go to.

Greenwald begins by relating how he first came into contact with Snowden. In an email in which he referred to himself as ‘Cincinnatus,’ Snowden requested that Greenwald install Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), an encryption program, so that they might communicate more securely. Greenwald initially procrastinated doing so, and he and Snowden weren’t able to fully connect until months later. During his account of his ten-day trip to Hong Kong to meet Snowden face-to-face, Greenwald gives the reader a sense of Snowden’s motivations. He writes that back in 2010, Snowden reached a turning point while working at the NSA. He recalled watching as drones surveilled individuals they might eventually kill and the NSA as it tracked individuals’ Internet activities in real time.

After Greenwald describes the circumstances of his initial meeting with Snowden and first steps toward publishing the leaks, he launches into some of the revelations behind the documents. Essentially, the documents detail the NSA’s methods of data collection, main objectives, and global reach, revealing that the agency’s overall goal was to dominate the totality of electronic communication and eliminate electronic privacy.



The book goes on to discuss the NSA’s “corporate partnerships,” which “include the world’s largest and most important Internet corporations and telecoms.” The NSA’s Stormbrew program, for instance, allows the agency to access Internet and telephone information at different ‘choke points,’ exploiting the fact that most of the global Internet traffic uses the US communications infrastructure. Stormbrew, says Greenwald, is made up of a sensitive partnership with two US telecommunications companies. The identity of these companies is one of the most safeguarded secrets of the NSA.

Greenwald then delves into a discussion about the importance of privacy. Citing and summarizing several studies, Greenwald expounds on the point that people tend to act differently when they know they are being surveilled. Generally, the public will adhere to commonly accepted social behavior to avoid the shame of being seen as deviant. Mass surveillance then, says Greenwald, is innately oppressive. Even if it is not being abused by officials, its very nature is a limit on freedom. In his defense of privacy, the author refers to the 1928 Olmstead v. United States case and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’s famous dissent during which he argues about the founding fathers’ intentions “to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their sensations,” essentially arguing for the right “to be let alone.”

The author then examines the historical context of surveillance in the U.S., stating that it has existed since the telegraph was invented. He presents several examples whereby individuals with unorthodox political opinions were kept under close watch. In his account of the FBI’s Cointelpro program, which ran from 1956 to 1971, Greenwald reveals how authorities used unfavorable information about individuals that they gathered through surveillance in order to undermine those individuals’ authority and public image.



Greenwald refers to the situation in America as an agreement between the public and the intelligence agencies. If you pose no risk or challenge, you will be left alone. Don’t provoke the authorities if you hope to be considered a good citizen, says Greenwald. The surest way of being unbothered is to stay silent, unthreatening, and submissive.

Next, the author takes on the topic of the state of today’s media in the U.S., which he calls “the establishment media.” Pointing a finger at publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, Greenwald is critical of the process by which leaked documents having to do with national security issues are initially discussed internally with Washington before becoming public. He claims that this enables the government to control such disclosures and diminish their aftermaths. As a result, the leaks become entangled with statements from Washington, and the stories become jumbled or even insignificant.

Furthermore, rather than acting as the watchdogs they purport to be, many media corporations are instead directly supporting Washington. The political media, says Greenwald, is one of the foremost institutions dedicated to scrutinizing state power to check abuse. He mentions the “fourth estate” theory, which is meant to ensure transparency in the government and moderate overreach. This check only functions, however, if journalists act in opposition to the ones who hold political power. The US media, Greenwald insists, has frequently relinquished this role, becoming compliant to the interests of the government, augmenting rather than scrutinizing its agenda.



Greenwald returns to Snowden as he reflects on reading Greek mythology and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces when he was growing up. Snowden relates that these works are part of what inspired him to act because, he says, “It is we who infuse life with meaning through our actions and the stories we create with them.” Though Snowden is regarded as a hero by some and as a traitor by others, what is certain is that Greenwald presents a compelling picture of secrets, political overreach, corporate complicity, and a breach of trust that has threatened the civil liberties of the American public.