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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey interviewed Edward Snowden today, and the big topic was technology.<\/p>\n
During the QA\u00a0(which was broadcast live from the Pardon Snowden Periscope account<\/a>) Snowden discussed the data that many online companies continue to collect about their\u00a0users, creating a \u201cquantified world\u201d \u2014 and more opportunities for government surveillance.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are being tracked, this is something you should agree to, this is something you should understand, this is something you should be aware of and can change at any time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Snowden acknowledged that there\u2019s a distinction between collecting the content of your communication (i.e., what you said during a phone call) and the metadata (information like who you called and how long it lasted). For some, surveillance that just collects metadata might seem\u00a0less alarming, but in Snowden\u2019s\u00a0view, \u201cThat metadata is in many cases much more dangerous and much more intrusive, because it can be understood at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that we currently face unprecedented\u00a0perils\u00a0because of all the data that\u2019s now available\u00a0\u2014 in the past, there was no way for the government to get a list of all the magazines you\u2019d read, or every book you\u2019d checked out from the library.<\/p>\n \u201c[In the past,] your beliefs, your future, your hopes,\u00a0your\u00a0dreams belonged to you,\u201d Snowden said. \u201cIncreasingly, these things belong\u00a0to companies, and these companies can share them however\u00a0they want, without a lot of oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t arguing that companies shouldn\u2019t\u00a0collect user data at all, but rather that \u201cthe people who need to be in control of that are the users.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the central problem of\u00a0the future, is how do we return control of our identities to the people\u00a0themselves?\u201d Snowden said.<\/p>\n That might seem to be overstating things, but when asked about the \u201cnormalization\u201d of government surveillance, Snowden suggested\u00a0that the issue goes beyond surveillance: \u201cWhat we\u2019re actually talking about is democracy, what we\u2019re talking about is civil empowerment.\u201d Specifically, he said there\u2019s \u201can increasing imbalance of power\u201d where public officials know more\u00a0and more\u00a0about private\u00a0citizens, while those citizens know less and less about the officials: \u201cWe can\u2019t even see their tax returns.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, he suggested that technology presents opportunities for freedom and empowerment\u00a0that go beyond any one country. Yes, he said, \u201cthe law is important\u201d (a previous interview where Snowden\u00a0seemed\u00a0to downplay the weight\u00a0of laws and politics prompted Gizmodo\u2019s Matt Novak to describe him\u00a0as a \u201cfucking idiot<\/a>\u201c) but he added, \u201cWe need to think about things not just in the national context, not just in the local\u00a0context, but\u00a0in the global\u00a0context.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan we correct things in the United States without correcting them for everyone else in a lot of\u00a0contexts?\u201d he asked. \u201cNo \u2014 but in the context of technology, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, he said that if someone built encrypted\u00a0communication technology that \u201cthat can\u2019t be intercepted,\u00a0that can\u2019t be censored, that can\u2019t be controlled, that can go anywhere\u00a0on\u00a0Earth,\u201d they\u00a0would be helping to create a \u201cfabric of freedom\u201d across the globe.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem of\u00a0fake news isn\u2019t solved by hoping for a referee, but rather because \u2026 we as users of these services help each other,\u201d he said. \u201cWe talk and we share and we point out what is true. The answer to bad speech is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that\u00a0critical thinking matters\u00a0now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everything in the interview\u00a0was quite so heavy, by the way. Snowden also offered some product feedback for Dorsey \u2014 he\u2019d like to be able to edit tweets. Should we expect\u00a0that to actually happen? Well, Dorsey responded by moving along to the next question without comment, so make of that what you will.<\/p>\n If you missed @Snowden<\/a>\u2018s live QA with @jack<\/a>, don\u2019t fret! You can watch it here: https:\/\/t.co\/slh5mO1Bhi<\/a><\/p>\n\n