Edward Snowden speaking from Russia at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. HORACIO VILLALOBOS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
International laws aimed at protecting citizens from having their data collected by private companies and governments don’t go far enough, according to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who helped reveal the U.S. government’s secret surveillance programs
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“Data isn’t harmless,” he said. “Data isn’t abstract when it’s about people, and all the data being collected today is about people. It is not data that is being exploited, it is people that are being exploited. It is not data and networks that are being manipulated. It is you that is being manipulated.”
According to Snowden, people can’t trust companies—whether it’s a private or public company or a government. That includes telecommunications companies, social networks and hardware manufactures. He explained that communication will continue to be vulnerable “until we redesign the basic system of connectivity of the internet.”
“The law is not the only thing that can protect you,” he said. “Technology is not the only thing that can protect you. We are the only thing that can protect us. And the only way to protect anyone is to protect everyone.”
Navy Vet