I've volunteered to go to prison with the government many times. What I won't do is I won't serve as a deterrent to people trying to do the right thing in difficult situations, so far, they've said they won't torture me, which is a start, I think, but we haven't gotten much further than that.

Edward Snowden

Categorized in : Top News

You shouldn't change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If you sacrifice your values because you're afraid, you don't care about those values very much.

Edward Snowden

agency sacrifice government

I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

Edward Snowden

nsa light justice

I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things.

Edward Snowden

nsa doe want

I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end.

Edward Snowden

government-spying information suffering

So many of the things we're told by the government simply aren't true.

Edward Snowden

government memorable

I went to a website the other day and right at the top of the page it showed me my ip address. It was the most disturbing moment I have ever experienced. This website even told me what internet browser I was using, and what day it was. Computers can do anything.

Edward Snowden

addresses computer pages

I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.

Edward Snowden

nsa impact people

By creating a self-policing, self-reporting, sort of self-monitoring culture through law, through statute, and imposing that on the academic world, I think not only are we losing a significant measure of freedom in academic traditions and in our civil society, but we're actually making ourselves less competitive with every other country around the world that does not do that. Because that's where researchers are going to go and that's where academics are going to go. And ultimately, that's where breakthroughs are going to occur.

Edward Snowden

law country thinking

They still have negligent auditing, they still have things going for a walk, and they have no idea where they're coming from and they have no idea where they're going. And if that's the case, how can we as the public trust the NSA with all of our information, with all of our private records, the permanent record of our lives?

Edward Snowden

nsa records ideas

So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading.

Edward Snowden

levels lows talking

I have been a systems engineer, systems administrator, a senior adviser for the Central Intelligence Agency, a solutions consultant and a telecommunications information systems officer.

Edward Snowden

senior agency information

If we can't have an open and honest debate about the value of ideas in a university in Glasgow, or Boston, or anywhere else in the world, then where are they going to go?

Edward Snowden

boston world ideas

I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law.

Edward Snowden

government fighting opportunity

Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.

Edward Snowden

encryption nsa strong

Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?

Edward Snowden

running war country

I'm ultimately satisfied that we know a little bit more about how the world really works.

Edward Snowden

satisfied littles world

The public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the 'consent of the governed' is meaningless... The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

Edward Snowden

nsa government names

The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night.

Edward Snowden

government-spying able night

I hope you have read the election programme of the Labour Party...this is not socialism. It is Bolshevism run mad.

Edward Snowden

mad party running

If we don't do anything, if we go along with the status quo, we are going to have a mass surveillance world.

Edward Snowden

surveillance mass world