When the modern society entered the age of new media, social networks and the internet, the State transformed itself from a traditional State in which the privacy of its citizens was a high priority into a so called Surveillance State, in which the government, by using the technology of security agencies, ensures the safety of its people by sacrificing their privacy. First of all, this thesis studies sociological and political theories that different authors used to define and analyse the expository modern society and to explain its role in the birth of Surveillance State. In addition, this thesis studies the Surveillance State itself and its structure, from security agencies that the government uses to continuously monitor its citizens to large internet companies that by collecting information from their users for greater profit contribute to global surveillance. Furthermore, the mainstream media by not reporting critically on the government has abandoned its main mission: to work for the people. This thesis also explains the social value of privacy as well as the damage that continuous mass survaillance is doing to global society, from psychological issues to completely stopping the social development of modern society. Lastly, this thesis focuses on the „Snowden case“, more specifically on how a 29-year old employee of the American security agency NSA Edward Snowden managed to disclose to the world public, through several journalists of The Guardian, thousands of secret documents that undoubtedly proved that the American government in George W. Bush and Barack Obama's administrations conducted mass illegal surveillance of the American people. The goal of the thesis is to analyse the American Surveillance State, try to explain how it came to be, and how Edward Snowden exposed its might and capacity to the general public. Lastly, the thesis argues that despite its growth and increased power, the fault of todays surveillance is in the new expository society that on daily basis trades its privacy for a more desirable good: entertainment, simpler life or comfort.