Post date: Mar 10, 2014 8:15:37 PM
Former security contractor Edward Snowden participates remotely in a panel discussion at South by Southwest in Texas about governmental intrusion into privacy.
RUSSIA (MARCH 10, 2014) (NBC) - Former security contractor Edward Snowden, facing arrest if he steps foot on U.S. soil, participated remotely in a panel discussion on Monday (March 10) inTexas about governmental intrusion into privacy.
Snowden, who is in Russia, answered questions via video conference at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in on how the U.S. National Security Agency uses technology to keep tabs on people."If data is being clandestinely acquired, and the public doesn't have any way to review it, and it's not legislatively authorized, it's not reviewed by the courts, it's not consonant with our Constitution, that's a problem," Snowden said.
Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he currently has asylum. The White House wants him returned to the United States for prosecution.
Last year, Snowden, who had been working at an NSA facility as an employee ofBooz Allen Hamilton, leaked a raft of secret documents that revealed a vast U.S. government system to monitor phone and internet data.
The leaks deeply embarrassed the Obama administration, which in January banned U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies and began reining in the sweeping collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms triggered by Snowden's revelations.