2013 The Snowden Revelations

In 2013, NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified documents revealing the scale of US and allied mass surveillance: the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, the PRISM program drawing data from major tech companies, and global interception programs run with partners like Britain's GCHQ. The disclosures, published by The Guardian and Washington Post, won a Pulitzer and forced the first real public reckoning — and modest legal reforms — over warrantless mass surveillance.