![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2013\/12\/26\/world\/26snowden1\/26snowden1-popup.jpg\" "\\"\"Privacy")
Expatriate (now stateless) Whistle Blower, Edward Snowden<\/p><\/div>\n
LONDON —\u00a0In a message broadcast Wednesday on British television, Edward J. Snowden, the former American security contractor, urged an end to mass surveillance, arguing that the electronic monitoring he has exposed surpasses anything imagined by George Orwell in \u201c1984,\u201d a dystopian vision of an all-knowing state.<\/p>\n
\u201cA child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all,\u201d Mr. Snowden said in a Christmas Day message shown by Channel 4. \u201cThey\u2019ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves \u2014 an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Snowden, 30, remains in Moscow, where the Russian government\u00a0granted him temporary asylum<\/a>\u00a0rather than extraditing him to the United States following his leak of information about the National Security Agency\u2019s extensive electronic surveillance programs. The Justice Department filed a criminal complaint against him in June, alleging that he had violated the United States\u2019 Espionage Act and stolen government property.<\/p>\n This month, Judge Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia said the\u00a0N.S.A.\u2019s mass collection of data was probably unconstitutional<\/a>. President Obama appointed an advisory committee of outside experts to review the agency\u2019s operations; it issued a report last week that\u00a0recommended curbing the agency\u2019s data collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s security services, which work closely with their American counterparts,\u00a0have also been deeply embarrassed<\/a>\u00a0by the revelations, and one of Mr. Snowden\u2019s more striking comments in the broadcast refers to \u201c1984,\u201d Orwell\u2019s celebrated novel about a state controlled by an omnipresent Big Brother.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat Britain\u2019s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information,\u201d Mr. Snowden said. \u201cThe types of collection in the book \u2014 microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us \u2014 are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go.\u201d<\/p>\n But he also argued that his actions had set off a debate that could help restore faith in those who regulate electronic communications. \u201cThe conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it,\u201d Mr. Snowden said. \u201cTogether, we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Snowden has spoken out publicly before, and his latest comments are in line with others he made this week. In a\u00a0lengthy interview with T<\/a>he Washington Post<\/a>, he said he had achieved what he set out to do. \u201cFor me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission\u2019s already accomplished,\u201d he said. \u201cI already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn\u2019t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Channel 4 described Mr. Snowden\u2019s brief appearance on Wednesday, which lasted less than two minutes, as his first television interview since arriving in Moscow, though the format is a televised statement as the station\u2019s alternative Christmas message to the queen\u2019s annual holiday broadcast. In the 20 years since it began its tradition, Channel 4 has commissioned a variety of outspoken public figures, including the former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.<\/p>\n Mr. Snowden\u2019s message was filmed and produced by the documentary maker\u00a0Laura Poitras<\/a>, Channel 4 said. In a statement, the channel\u2019s director of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, said the information Mr. Snowden had revealed \u201craises serious questions for democratic society.\u201d She added that his message was \u201can opportunity for our viewers to hear from him directly and judge for themselves what he has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n By contrast, and in line with tradition, the Christmas Day message from Queen Elizabeth II kept well away from controversy or politics. Reflecting on the birth of her great-grandson, Prince George, the queen said the arrival of a new baby gave people the chance to think about the future with \u201crenewed hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Message by Snowden: Privacy Still Matters by Stephen Castle LONDON —\u00a0In a message broadcast Wednesday on British television, Edward J. Snowden, the former American security contractor, urged an end to mass surveillance, arguing that the electronic monitoring he has exposed … Continue reading