{"id":12412,"date":"2020-08-13T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=12412"},"modified":"2020-08-18T14:39:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:39:46","slug":"snowden-clearance-government-clearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/snowden-clearance-government-clearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Snowden’s Clearance: How He Learned Our Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does government clearance work? What is the TC\/SCI clearance level? What did it take to get Edward Snowden clearance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government clearance is a background check process that allows certain For Edward Snowden, clearance was the key to public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Edward Snowden, security clearance, and the overall process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How Edward Snowden Got Government Clearance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The federal government is the only entity that can grant a security clearance and they only clear people who are sponsored\u2014people who have an offer for a job that requires clearance.<\/strong> Most private companies don\u2019t want to hire uncleared people and pay them while they\u2019re waiting for clearance to come through. Therefore, most people get their clearance by taking a government job. Once they have it, they can leave the government and take their clearance with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three levels of security clearance: confidential is lowest, then secret, then top secret. Top secret also has an additional qualifier, Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS\/SCI). The highest-level intelligence positions require TS\/SCI and it can take over a year to get this clearance.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get TS\/SCI, a candidate undergoes a Single Scope Background Investigation. This investigation is primarily to find out if a candidate has anything that could be used against them. They care less if your record is perfect and more that you\u2019re honest. If you have a secret, an enemy could use it against you to get access to sensitive parts of your job.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Snowden’s Clearance Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Ed Snowden was getting his clearance, he was nervous even though he didn\u2019t really have anything to hide. But the check would look into every element of his life. The National Background Investigations Bureau talked to everyone Ed knew, including, he suspects, a man he worked with once at a snow cone stand.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Edward Snowden, clearance and the background check made him reflect on his childhood online activities.<\/strong> He was less worried about embarrassing searches for porn\u2014everyone does that\u2014and more concerned about his posts on forums. They weren\u2019t necessarily going to cause a problem for his clearance, but he felt they were stupid. They reflected opinions he\u2019d changed, things he\u2019d said just to be inflammatory (a large part of early Internet culture), or things he\u2019d never meant at all and had said just to get attention<\/a>. He disagreed with what a lot of his childhood self had written. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed could have deleted his posts if he\u2019d wanted to. This wasn\u2019t illegal, nor would it have affected his clearance. However, he decided to leave everything up. Interestingly, his dating profiles never embarrassed him. Reflecting back<\/a> on this as an adult, he thinks this is because they were supposed to attract real-life attention, so he\u2019d been thoughtful about the content.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final stage of the Snowden security clearance process was a polygraph interview. All the questions were yes or no answers and he had to answer them all three times. He passed all three times and came out with the TS\/SCI as well as the \u201cfull scope polygraph.\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does government clearance work? What is the TC\/SCI clearance level? What did it take to get Edward Snowden clearance? Government clearance is a background check process that allows certain For Edward Snowden, clearance was the key to public service. Learn more about Edward Snowden, security clearance, and the overall process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-12412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-society","tag-permanent-record","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nEd Snowden's Clearance: How He Learned Our Secrets - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did Edward Snowden's government clearance work? 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