US INTELLIGENCE WHISTLEBLOWER says that the US government can see nude photos on your phone.
The former NSA security contractor, who is currently exiled in Russia, sat down with English comedian John Oliver to explain US intelligence security.
The controversial Patriot Act, signed into US law in the wake of the September 11 attacks, is due to be reauthorised on 1 June.
Snowden says that he did not steal and leak the information on US spying to solve a problem.
I did this to give the American people the chance to decide for themselves the kind of government they want to have.
“The NSA has the greatest surveillance capabilities that we’ve seen in history. They will argue that they don’t use this for nefarious purposes against American citizens. In some ways, that’s true.
“The real problem is that they are using this capability to make us vulnerable to them and then saying while they have a gun to your head “I’m not going to pull the trigger, trust me”.
He says that he joined the NSA because he feels that mass surveillance can be useful.
Spies are great when they’re on our side, but when they’re off the leash, they can be very dangerous.
When challenged by Oliver whether that decision can be made by the public who are uninformed on the issue, he agrees that the US public doesn’t care about foreign surveillance.
The comedian then reframes the issue, asking if people should be worried about their “dick pics” being seen by government agencies.
“Well, the good news is that there’s no program named, ‘The Dick Pic Program’.
The bad news is that they’re still collecting everybody’s information-including your dick pics.
“I guess I never thought about putting it into the context of your junk.”
He then explains how and why the US government can take the information, but says that Americans should continue taking pictures of their privates.
“You shouldn’t change your behaviour because a government agency is doing the wrong thing.
“If we sacrifice our values because we’re afraid, we don’t care about those values very much.”
The Snowden interview starts at 14 minutes.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say