Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden spoke at SXSW via interactive conference call. The exiled government official spoke through a choppy audio video, with multiple proxies to keep his Russian location anonymous. He's wanted for leaking top-secret documents regarding the United States government and NSA's mass surveillance. He chose to make his first public appearance since he fled the country at the SXSW festival because that's where the techies are.
Edward Snowden appeared on camera with a green-screen image of the U.S. constitution behind him. He is trying to send a message to his critics and hone in on the opportunity to educate the unaware public and technological community about the NSA. He claims the tech community will fix this, "they're the ones who really fix things, who can enforce our rights through technological standards, even when Congress hasn't taken the steps". He importantly says " use end-to-end encryption,your ISP and your communications provider can no longer spy on you by default".
Edward Snowden emphasised that surveillance isn't used to find criminals, but rather as a tool to sensor individuals for profit. Mass surveillance of individuals isn't just violating constitutional rights but human rights, seeing as we don't consent to it.
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