Edward Snowden warns world to guard online info, governments ‘can kill you, jail you’
Former National Security analyist Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of secret documents, spoke publicly Monday for the first time since fleeing the United States.
Edward Snowden addressing audience at SXSW via Skype
Snowden addressed thousands of technology leaders at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas by Skype from Russia.
He encouraged the audience to guard their online information and to act as watchdogs.
“The government has the ability to deprive you of rights…any country that have police powers, they have military powers, they have intelligence power, they can kill you, jail you, they can surveille you,” Snowden said.
“It’s important to remember that Americans benefit profoundly because we have the most to lose from being hacked,” he continued.
Snowden said he has no regrets about leaking the NSA documents.
“Would I do this again? Yes, regardless of what happens to me…” Snowden said.
When asked why he chose to speak at this event, he responded “They’re the folks who really fix things, who can enforce our rights through technological standards, even when Congress hasn’t taken steps.”
“You guys who are in the room now are all the firefighters,” Snowden added. “And we need you to help fix this.”
Snowden said gadget-makers, app-writers, operating system inventors and other technology innovators needed to build on the progress being made with regard to data encryption technology – in which plain text data exchanges are encoded using an encryption key and then deciphered by authorized users using secret decryption keys.
“The bottom line … is that encryption does work,” he said.
