The leak of thousands of documents from the US National Security Agency by intelligence contractor Edward Snowden was the largest of its kind in history. It allowed the Guardian and other newspapers to detail how American and British governments routinely gathered data on the electronic communications of citizens – whether they were suspected of a crime or not.
Snowden left his home, his job, his family and his girlfriend with the expressed intention of shining a light on what his government was doing in secret. He told the Guardian he did not want to live in a world where everything is recorded.
Joining Tom Clark this week are the Guardian's Luke Harding , author of a new book The Snowden Files; and Ewen MacAskill, one of the Guardian's lead journalists on the story.
Now, eight months on from going public, Edward Snowden is in Russia having secured asylum for a year.
But how much has changed following his disclosures in the US and the UK? Why did the British government demand the Guardian destroy its computers containing the leaked material? And where is public opinion when it comes to the debate on how much data governments and private companies should keep on citizens in a free society?
Leave your thoughts below.
