If you want to know why Snowden exists, consider what Zimbardo explains here.
https://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_...

Snowden is a global pys ops designed to shape human behaviour on a global scale.

Considering how many websites exist, just visiting a few websites regularly is enough to identify who you are.

Its all in the patterns.

If you cant stay off line, then at least stick with using the most popular devices, and only visit the most popular websites from public or work places in a futile attempt to blend in with the crowd.

So the application of specialist knowledge like using the Linux distro Tails to supposedly cover your tracks using Tor is enough to highlight you when considering how many people know about the existence of Tails, how many in your area even if your ISP fudges your location, and the time of day regularly visiting your favourite websites, especially when considering how many are online compared to those doing other tasks like being at (shift) work, watching TV or simply out and about. You can soon whittle the numbers down to id the individual.

You can even tell if someone is using a 32bit version of an OS which comes in 32bit and 64bit flavours because 32bit OS's always run faster as there are less addresses and pointers available in 32bit compared to 64bit.

You can even work out the type of processor in the device by the speed some things occur online, when considering the instructions sets that exist in cpu's and those that have to be emulated by code.

If you use a PC with UEFI bios, your bios is the backdoor into your system as its just a cut down posix system which allows remote access along with Intel Wake on Lan and everything they have developed like out of band support ie Intel AMT/vPro.

FreeBSD as another example has some "bugs" which allow you to bypass any block rules you might setup in PF as one example. So you can forget using things like PFsense.

Very few people in the world have found the hidden partition which exists in Windows 7 which is activated by a switch in your PC bios reporting everything you click and type back to Amazon cloud servers to cover the hackers aka spooks trails.

Spooks have been spying since the earliest telephone exchanges existed which required calling the operator to be put through to someone. The operators were typically women and as we see today with MI5 recruiting women because women are the best liars/fakers as they dont have the physical attributes namely strength to otherwise get themselves out of a tricky situation http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2980933/The-s-Bond-J...

Even your medical records, your finance details, school reports are used to psychologically profile you automatically with big data, so coupled with your parents behaviours and their genes passed onto you, effectively your card will be marked as soon as you are born whether you like it or not! Theres your Minority Report pre-cog.

Most people dont have a clue how big brother it is today, even encryption can be used against you if you trust a certificate authority to issue your certs considering how they have been hacked and no company has to admit they have been hacked to their users. Are you even competent enough to understand the code in your opensource distro to spot the bugs?

If you trust the HW companies who built the components in your devices, more fool you. Govts and big business have been in cahoots well before WW2, although WW2 history shows how some big businesses played both sides.

And if you believe the spooks dont break the law, think again. They will break into your property if they want to, if you are in the UK, they will even use your NHS treatments to dispose of you if need be.

When you are the law, you can do what the fuck you like, even the supposed free press in the UK is actually licenced and you will find useful puppets who will do anything for money or status where ever you look, although blackmail is the most common tactic against individuals including journalists.

Just look at whistleblowers and how they become ostracised. Manipulating people when you have the unlimited resources to print your own cash is very very easy, and the ultimate tool is money, which is why the Bankers were bailed out in 2008.

Today AI's like Hey Google, Siri and others are always listening and recording with your personal reporting device aka your mobile phone.

Is Google a manhatten project for the 21st century?

Manhatten projects are always top secret.