Monday, Edward Snowden broke radio silence for the second time in a week (after addressing the EU in writing - PDF) when he participated in a keynote interview to the SXSW 2014 Monday.
Hosted by the ACLU's Ben Wizner (now Snowden's attorney) and Christopher Soghoian (ACLU's internet technologist), who at times seemed to overshadow the shy Mr Snowden, the discussion ranged on various topics but mostly on the fundamentals of why Snowden chose to expose the NSA programs and what he thinks needs to be done to fix the internet.
Rather than recount this blow by blow, I am posting videos of the live stream so you can draw your own conclusions over the fold.
I am posting two versions, the first is the official ACLU version of the live feed including video, however, due to the "7 proxies" required to protect Snowden's location, the sound quality is terrible, hence the second version, which has the sound filtered to reduce the noise but no live video. If you manage to sync them, you can watch the first and listen to the second!
ACLU official video feed (poor sound)
Direct Link
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Processed audio (recommended)
Direct Link
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Related ACLU links to : Learn More and Take Action
Snowden's view is basically consistent with the emerging consensus; what we need to do, can do and will do is develop user-friendly and (ultimately) automatic encryption tools that make mass surveillance costly and impractical, forcing security organization to focus on real targets rather than running dragnet surveillance operations.
Many still wonder why. Rather than argue the case here yet again, I offer these additional videos from the ACLU (including Wizner and Soghoian) and others, who provide the damning details too often overlooked in debates of the issue here and elsewhere.
Each video is about 45 - 60 minutes, but it is worth your time over a week or so to watch these to understand better why this matters.
DEF CON 21 - Panel - The ACLU Presents NSA Surveillance
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30C3: Through a PRISM, Darkly - Everything we know about NSA spying - Opsahl, EFF
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30C3: Backdoors, Government Hacking and The Next Crypto Wars - Soghoian, ACLU
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30C3: To Protect And Infect Part 1 - The militarization of the Internet
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30C3: To Protect And Infect Part 2 - Jacob Applebaum on NSA Tools
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30C3: Seeing The Secret State: Six Landscapes - Trevor Paglen's Fun Stuff
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And back in the pre-Snowden era ...
29C3: Not My Department - Jacob Appelbaum hits it out of the park
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DEFCON 20: Can You Track Me Now? - Wizner, Soghoian, ACLU
(if the below is not loading here is a Direct Link)
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DEFCON 20: Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The National Security Agency and the Constitution
(if the below is not loading, here is a Direct Link)
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Your thoughts?