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Snowden says privacy is under threat
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Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed details of electronic surveillance by American and British spy services, warned of the dangers posed by a loss of privacy in a message broadcast in Britain on Christmas Day.
In a two-minute video recorded in Moscow, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum, he spoke of concerns over surveillance and appeared to draw comparison with the dystopian tale “1984” which described a fictional state which operates widespread surveillance of its citizens.
“Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book — microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today.”
“We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person,” he said.
“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,” said Snowden. “They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that’s a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.”
The “Alternative Christmas Message,” broadcast annually on Britain’s Channel 4 television since 1993, mimics the format of the yearly address by Queen Elizabeth.
Previous participants have included then President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and cartoon characters Marge and Lisa Simpson.
On Tuesday, Snowden — who disclosed thousands of confidential documents — said in an interview published in the Washington Post that he had achieved what he set out to do. “For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” he said.
Snowden left his NSA post in Hawaii in May and went public with his first revelations from Hong Kong a few weeks later.
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