Edward Snowden stoked the debate over government surveillance that was mass. Tim Cook may be the one.
By showing the extent of U.S. tracking of private advice, the former CIA worker compelled Americans to face the intrusion into their privacy, and additionally created an opening for the people to challenge the government’s actions.

“When someone in this kind of powerful position as Tim Cook is recommending for privacy, it is something which authorities must take seriously. He is playing a tremendously useful part in this massively significant argument.”

Passing the Baton
By openly facing the U.S. government, Cook is basically going — and legitimizing — Snowden’s heritage. Yet the differences between the two guys are vast. Snowden needed to perpetrate a crime of treason because of his campaign and is living in exile in Russia, while being sought by U.S. authorities on larceny and espionage charges. Cook, as CEO of the most valuable firm in the world, is in a status and is hiring an army of attorneys to be rewarded for representing the interests of the customers of Apple.
Since he began to lead Apple in 2011 cook’s advocacy is part of an evolution in his public persona. In his previous job as chief operating officer, the executive had shunned the limelight, leaving Steve Jobs to be style and the public face for the iPhone manufacturer. The CEO has gotten more vocal about problems he deems significant, from climate change to spiritual liberty as Apple’s sales and influence grew. He determined to come out in a personal essay in 2014, a choice he said was driven by a sense of duty to help boost the specific situation of other minorities and homosexual people.

Solitude Discussion
While Cook’s ending targets and Snowden may be similar — limiting federal agencies’ ability to obtain data that is private — the activities of Snowden remain a matter of intense competition.
“The argument he’s cultivated is a precious one, but the method in which he is nurtured it and his activities since going on the run indicate that he is likely done more damage than good when it comes to security on earth,” said Tim Watson, manager of the cybersecurity facility in the University of Warwick, England.
After the disclosures in 2013 of Snowden, Apple and other technology companies came under greater scrutiny over the degree of their co-operation with authorities in obtaining private information. While legal constraints allow it to be difficult to push back against requests from Central Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency, the FBI case differs in its public nature.
Test Case
“Given the circumstance here post-Snowden, I believe Apple feels like it is an opportunity to allow them to openly push back when there are a lot of cases where they aren’t permitted to openly push back,” said Andrew K. Woods, an assistant professor of law at the University of Kentucky. “Before this disclosure, folks were beginning to get concerned about Internet companies gathering information about them. Subsequently Snowden occurred and NSA was the huge bad guy.”
But prospects for laws aren’t unclear.
Public Dialog
It is no surprise then, that Snowden has leapt eagerly into the public dialogue over Apple’s tussle with the FBI since the standoff erupted before in February.
Apple, for its part, has not referred to Snowden in its fight against the FBI, or mentioned him in last week’s 65-page federal court filing to the court order in response. However, in an interview last year with Germany’s Bild newspaper, Cook admitted Snowden’s part in receiving the discussion going: “If Snowden achieved anything for us, then it was to get us to talk more on these matters,” Cook said.