If Snowden had been less clever or resourceful he'd be stuck in solitary confinement right now instead of giving interviews. Playing chicken with the mightiest organizations on the planet and getting away with it is extremely impressive and in many ways it shows the dangers to powerful organizations like these: individuals, acting on impulse or because of convictions.

And that's precisely why all that data collection is so scary, such individuals will be shunted onto dead-end tracks long before they even realize they are such individuals in the future.