'US Constitution was being violated on massive scale' - Snowden
11 March 2014, 09:13 -- Speaking via video link, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told a packed house at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival to fight against mass surveillance.
'The NSA, the sort of global mass surveillance that's occurring in all of these countries, not just the U.S. and it's important to remember that this is a global issue, they are setting fire to the future of the internet and the people who are in this room now, you guys are all the firefighters.'
'If data is being clandestinely acquired, and the public doesn't have any way to review it, and it's not legislatively authorized, it's not reviewed by the courts, it's not consonant with our Constitution, that's a problem.'
Fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden urged the technology community on Monday to improve protections for internet users against mass surveillance by governments and other data breaches. 'There's a policy response that needs to occur, but there's also a technical response that needs to occur,' he said, speaking by live videolink to a packed hall in Austin, Texas.
Living under temporary asylum in Russia, Snowden is a former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) who released thousands of classified documents last year, exposing US mass collection of telephone metadata and internet monitoring by the intelligence agency.
The revelations of spying programmes by the United States and other countries have sparked continuing security and diplomatic rows.
The Snowden case has galvanized technology companies seeking to distance themselves from NSA surveillance, with some industry leaders raising security and encryption standards.
Snowden addressed a session during South by Southwest Interactive, one of the world's leading online and multimedia industry and culture events.
'The people who are in the room in Austin right now - they're the folks who can really fix things, who can enforce our rights through technical standards,' he said.
Snowden's video feed often froze while he continued speaking, and the audio was tinny and sometimes garbled.
He sat in front of a giant replica of the US Constitution's preamble, with the famous opening words 'We, the people,' in large letters.
Ben Wizner, his US attorney and director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, who moderated the conference, said that Snowden was connected through seven proxy servers, apparently in an effort to conceal his location in Russia.
Even before Snowden spoke, privacy and data security was the dominant topic at South by Southwest, which opened Friday and continues through Sunday, including film and music festivals.
Major internet companies, whose business models depend on mining users' data for targeted advertising, have re-emphasized privacy and security since last year.
Steven Coufal, 25, a marketing specialist who attended Monday's conference, said Snowden's appearance would fuel further debate: 'That was great.'
Snowden, 30, who faces criminal prosecution if he returns to the United States, denied that his leaks had undermined national security.
'We've actually had tremendous intelligence failures because we're monitoring the internet ... everybody's communications instead of suspects' communications. And that lack of focus has caused us to miss leads that we should have had,' he said.
Questioning those policies is 'improving our national security,' Snowden said.
He called for stronger oversight of intelligence gathering and accused Congress of failing in that role.
'We have an oversight model that could work,' Snowden said.
'The problem is when your overseers aren't interested in oversight, when we've got Senate intelligence committees, House intelligence committees, that are cheerleading for the NSA instead of holding them to account.'
ACLU privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian, who participated in the Snowden conference, noted that many Americans disagree with Snowden's decision to leak classified information.
'Let me be clear about one really important thing: His disclosures have improved Internet security,' Soghoian said, drawing applause from the crowd. 'And the security improvements we've gotten haven't just protected us from bulk government surveillance. They've protected us from hackers at Starbucks who are monitoring our wi-fi connections. They've protected us from stalkers and identity thieves and common criminals.'
Wizner asked Snowden, who has been unable to leave Russia, if the impact of his revelations was worth the price he has paid. 'Would I do this again? The answer is absolutely, yes,' Snowden replied.
'Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to know. I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and I felt that the Constitution was violated on a massive scale.'
Voice of Russia, dpa, Reuters
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