Edward Snowden is the former security contractor who leaked classified NSA documents last year, and today spoke at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Of course, being that the U.S. government wants to lock him up, he spoke by way of video chat from Russia where he was granted temporary asylum.
The talk lasted around one hour, and was lead by Ben Wizner, lawyer and director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy Technology Project.
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Snowden echoed many points, and told SXSW attendees that they are the ones who can help change things “even when Congress hasn’t yet gotten to the point to protect our freedoms.”
End-to-end encryption is the best response to the NSA’s surveillance programs, he says, and trusted figures or a watchdog group need put in place to ensure citizen’s rights are not being violated.
Snowden’s life has been turned upside down since leaking the information, but says he’d do it again.
“I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale.”
Edward Snowden still faces felonies in the U.S. for theft of government property and espionage, and in January Russia said it would extend his asylum.
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