Edward Snowden and modern technology: 2013 is child’s play

Edward Snowden He is a former National Security Agency (NSA) official who in 2013 exposed thousands of classified documents about mass surveillance programs in his country and its allies. These leaks revealed the extent and depth of intelligence gathering of personal data and communications from millions of people around the world without judicial authorization or proper oversight.

Snowden fled the US and took refuge in Hong Kong, where he handed over the documents to several journalists. He then went to Russia, where he asked for temporary and then permanent asylum. Since then, he has been accused of espionage and theft of government property by the US authorities, who have requested his extradition.

And 10 years after his massive leak, he talks about what he thinks about modern technology and what he experienced in 2013.

“Technology has begun to have a huge impact,” Snowden said. “If we think about what we saw in 2013 and what governments can do today, 2013 will seem like child’s play.”

Looking back to 2013, he said: “We believed that the government did not deceive us. But they did. We believe that technology companies will not take advantage of us. But they did. It will happen again because that is the nature of power.”

However, Snowden claims that he has no regrets about what he did.

End-to-end encryption “was a pipe dream in 2013 when it became known,” Snowden said. “A huge part of the global Internet traffic was held electronically in the nude. Now it’s a rare sight.”

But Snowden is concerned that technological advances are swallowing up privacy. “The idea that after the revelations of 2013 the next day there will be rainbows and unicorns is unrealistic. This is a continuous process. And we will have to work on this for the rest of our lives, the lives of our children and beyond.”