Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Privacy

Snowden Sees ‘Turning Point’ in NSA Reforms

WASHINGTON – Fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said Tuesday he sees a “turning point” in the surveillance reform plans unveiled by the White House and Congress.

WASHINGTON – Fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said Tuesday he sees a “turning point” in the surveillance reform plans unveiled by the White House and Congress.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents which provided details of vast US surveillance programs, gave a guarded welcome to a proposal from President Barack Obama to end bulk collection of telephone data.

“I believed that if the NSA’s unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans was known, it would not survive the scrutiny of the courts, the Congress, and the people,” Snowden said in a statement released through the American Civil Liberties Union, which is coordinating his legal representation.

“The very first open and adversarial court to ever judge these programs has now declared them ‘Orwellian’ and ‘likely unconstitutional,’” the statement said.

Snowden also made reference to the “USA Freedom Act,” a proposal introduced earlier this year, saying it offered “historic, albeit incomplete reforms.”

He added that “President Obama has now confirmed that these mass surveillance programs, kept secret from the public and defended out of reflex rather than reason, are in fact unnecessary and should be ended.”

Snowden said, “This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA and restore the public’s seat at the table of government.”

The White House plan would keep the data outside of government while allowing access for national security reasons, officials said.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Key US lawmakers welcomed the proposal, and one group put forward new reform legislation along the same lines, with bipartisan support.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Artificial Intelligence

Two of humanity’s greatest drivers, greed and curiosity, will push AI development forward. Our only hope is that we can control it.

Cybercrime

Daniel Kelley was just 18 years old when he was arrested and charged on thirty counts – most infamously for the 2015 hack of...

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

The FBI dismantled the network of the prolific Hive ransomware gang and seized infrastructure in Los Angeles that was used for the operation.

Cybersecurity Funding

Los Gatos, Calif-based data protection and privacy firm Titaniam has raised $6 million seed funding from Refinery Ventures, with participation from Fusion Fund, Shasta...

Ransomware

The Hive ransomware website has been seized as part of an operation that involved law enforcement in 10 countries.

Privacy

Many in the United States see TikTok, the highly popular video-sharing app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, as a threat to national security.The following is...

Privacy

Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source...