Snowden: Struggling for Relevance?

July 20, 2019

Notorious government information leaker, Edward Snowden recently explained how he protected himself during his treasonous acts. The Next Web shares the details in, “Edward Snowden Used Bitcoin To Buy Servers For 2013 Mass Surveillance Leak.” Snowden revealed that he relied on Bitcoin’s censorship resistance to leak information in 2013. He revealed this information at Bitcoin 2019, a conference held in San Francisco.

Snowden said he transferred the sensitive information about the National Security Agency and Five Eyes Intelligence Agency to servers paid for with Bitcoin. Snowden lauded Bitcoin’s permission less and decentralized infrastructure that allows users to exchange funds without being watched. Snowden praised Bitcoin more:

“ ‘Bitcoin is free money […] you are able to exchange and interact permissionless. And when I think about privacy, that’s what it’s all about. What does liberty mean? It’s freedom from permission, it means we live our lives in a way that we can experiment, we can engage, we can try things, we can even fail, and we don’t have to get a permission slip from the principal’s office. We are not watched, we are not recorded […] this ability to act without permission […] is the foundation of all rights. It used to be that governments could watch you […] but now all of this happens with devices that we, ourselves, pay for,” said Snowden, adding “and while we do that privacy stops being the status quo and liberty stops being the natural state of things,’ he noted.”

Snowden reiterated his support that privacy is not about needing to hide something, but more about protecting oneself. He also addressed that criminals use Bitcoin, but stated that more criminals use the US dollar. Snowden was charged in 2012 and his passport was revoked. Russia currently grants him asylum, but his residency permit will run out in 2020.

DarkCyber awaits the next Snowden announcement. Perhaps a rah rah for Facebook and Libra?

Whitney Grace, July 20, 2019

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Government, Legal matters, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.