Creator of email encryption software PGP and co-founder of secure private communications company Silent Circle Phil Zimmerman talks about the surveillance society and the 'corrupting nature of big data'.

Ladar Levison's email service Lavabit -- now shut down -- was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and is now at the centre of a potentially historic legal battle over privacy rights in the digital age.

And: "There is no such thing as an NSA-proof email (just ask ultrasecure email providers)".

"The NSA claims it 'touches' only 1.6% of internet traffic – doesn't sound a lot. In fact, though, that's practically everything that matters.... by very rough, beer-soaked-napkin numbers, the NSA's 1.6% of net traffic would be half of the communication on the net," says Jeff Jarvis in The Guardian.

(NSA headquarters, Maryland USA. From the New York Review of Books)

A history and analysis of surveillance by the NSA and its predecessors, from the New York Review of Books, .

From the Washington Post: "The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008."

From the Wall Street Journal, an overview titled 'What you need to know on new details of NSA spying'. "The NSA has worked with telecom companies to develop a surveillance system that covers roughly 75% of U.S. telecommunications."

(Image: New York Times)

An in-depth portrait of Laura Poitras, the filmmaker Edward Snowden initially contacted -- along with journalist Glenn Greenwald -- with his NSA revelations.

 Giving a face to innocent victims of drone killings in Yemen, Nassar al-Awlaki writes about the US missile that killed his (American-born) grandson.

On July 30, former US army private Bradley Manning's verdict was handed down.

Cleared of 'aiding the enemy' charges but convicted of multiple Espionage Act violations, he faces a possible sentence of up to136 years. The verdict has been widely condemned, by organisations such as the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, and Reporters Without Borders.