Edward Snowden has some advice for maintaining online privacy in an age of widespread NSA surveillance. Snowden called Google and Facebook “dangerous” while praising Apple’s encryption efforts.
“We’re talking about encryption. We’re talking about dropping programs that are hostile to privacy,” Snowden said in an interview published Saturday by the New Yorker. “For example, Dropbox? Get rid of Dropbox; it doesn’t support encryption, it doesn’t protect your private files. And use competitors like SpiderOak that do the same exact service, but they protect the content of what you’re sharing.”
Snowden, the former NSA analyst who revealed the extent of U.S. government surveillance in 2013, did so from a hotel in Hong Kong before leaving for Russia. Having ditched his Hawaii apartment and $122,000 annual salary earlier that summer, he said in the interview he intended only a brief stay in Russia before leaving for Latin America, only to face visa issues that prevented him from leaving. Snowden is now actively sought by the U.S. to face espionage charges.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
Dropbox defended itself in a June blog post after Snowden bashed the service’s security. All of the files its users send and receive are “encrypted while traveling between you and our servers” and when they are “at rest” on Dropbox’s servers. SpiderOak encrypts data locally on a user’s computer as well, as opposed to only when it is in transit or in the cloud.
Snowden said Facebook and Google have improved their methods of protecting user privacy but were still “dangerous services” that should largely be avoided. Ironically, the interview was conducted remotely over Google Hangouts and streamed live on the tech giant’s YouTube.
Consumers should also be wary of standard text-messaging services from wireless providers, Snowden said. Silent Circle for iPhone and Android and RedPhone, which is currently Android-only, were better replacements because they encrypt texts — but require that both users install the app to communicate.
Latest posts by Royce Christyn (see all)
- Irish Slaves – What The History Books Will Never Tell You - November 1, 2017
- Government Op Who Predicted Super Bowl Score Warns Of Nuclear War - February 18, 2017
- Video: Why Voting Doesn’t Change Anything & Democracy Is A Lie - May 7, 2016
Blue Planet Project ALIEN, UFO book from notes of scientist in
top-secret alien genetic research program, notes, pictures of aliens, UFO crash sites!
http://www.blue-planet-project.com