Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, called the surveillance technology employed by intel agencies a decade ago “child’s play” compared to upcoming technologies.
Snowden claimed in an interview on the 10th anniversary of his dramatic revelations revealing the degree to which the US National Security Agency and its British equivalent GCHQ conducted eavesdropping, sometimes illegally, that he had no regrets.
He worried about technology, which has “grown to be enormously influential.” “If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today, 2013 seems like child’s play,” he told The Guardian.
Snowden predicts a recurrence.
He claims that invasive spyware, face recognition, AI, and video surveillance cameras have exacerbated the threats presented by international governments and large enterprises. “The nature of power” repeats history, he warned.
We trusted the government. They did. Tech businesses were trustworthy. They did. “That is power,” he remarked, recalling 2013. Snowden, who has been in exile in Russia since the 2013 revelations, said “rainbows and unicorns the next day” were not possible. “We will have to be working at it for the rest of our lives and our children’s lives and beyond,” he says of privacy.