Edward Snowden - the man responsible for leaking secret information about U.S. surveillance techniques - was officially fired on Tuesday by the contracting firm that employed him.<br/> <br />Citing "violations of the firm's ethics and principles" Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp terminated Snowdon's contract.<br/> <br />But the repercussions of the leaks - which exposed the United States' broad monitoring of phone calls and internet data - go far beyond Snowden himself.<br/> <br />Big technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft urged the U.S. government to loosen security restrictions so they could publish the number and scope of surveillance requests.<br/> <br />In New York, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court challenging the legality of the surveillance program.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEX ABDO, STAFF ATTORNEY AT THE ACLU NATIONAL SECURITY PROJECT:<br/> <br />"The very real aspiration of the NSA that we have now learned is to essentially record the I
