{"id":149821,"date":"2015-05-09T15:02:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T15:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=05ed7cb4ea8546c0fd3f6dcbd5f2e600"},"modified":"2015-05-09T17:58:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T17:58:01","slug":"snowden-says-australia-watching-citizens-time-slams-new-metadata-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/snowden-says-australia-watching-citizens-time-slams-new-metadata-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowden says Australia watching its citizens \u2018all the time,\u2019 slams new metadata laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accused Australia of undertaking mass surveillance of its citizens and passing laws on the collection of metadata that he says do not protect society from acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n

Snowden, addressing the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne via\u00a0satellite link, criticized Australia’s new metadata laws, which
\nallow the government and intelligence agencies to keep a constant\u00a0watch on citizens.<\/p>\n

“What this means is they are watching everybody all the\u00a0time,\u201d<\/em> the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re collecting information and they’re just putting it\u00a0in buckets that they can then search through not only locally,\u00a0not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign\u00a0intelligences services.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last month, Australia passed controversial laws that require\u00a0telecommunications firms to retain their customers\u2019 phone and
\ncomputer metadata for two years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\n
\n Published time: May 09, 2015 15:02 <\/span>
\n <\/p><\/div>\n
\n

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden (Reuters\/Charles Platiau)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accused Australia of undertaking mass surveillance of its citizens and passing laws on the collection of metadata that he says do not protect society from acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n

\n Snowden, addressing the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne via
\n satellite link, criticized Australia’s new metadata laws, which
\n allow the government and intelligence agencies to keep a constant
\n watch on citizens.\n <\/p>\n

“What this means is they are watching everybody all the
\n time,”<\/em> the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower said.
\n “They’re collecting information and they’re just putting it
\n in buckets that they can then search through not only locally,
\n not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign
\n intelligences services.”<\/em>\n <\/p>\n

Last month, Australia passed controversial laws that require
\n telecommunications firms to retain their customers’ phone and
\n computer metadata for two years.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: Congress mulls future of metadata
\n collection after court’s condemnation<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Snowden decried this disturbing trend, warning that regardless of
\n what you are doing “you’re being watched.”<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n He compared Australia’s mass surveillance system to that being
\n used in the UK.
\n <\/p>\n

\n “Australia’s role in mass surveillance around the world is
\n similar to the UK and the Tempora program,”<\/em> he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Snowden, who has been living in Moscow since June 2013 after
\n receiving political asylum, criticized the Australian
\n government’s passage of a metadata program that is being used, he
\n said, to “collect everyone’s communications in advance of
\n criminal suspicion.”<\/em>
\n <\/p>\n

\n “This is dangerous,”<\/em> he told the conference.\n<\/p>\n

\n The former system administrator for the CIA said such invasive
\n surveillance technologies had nothing in common with traditional
\n liberal societies.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: NSA’s telephone metadata collection
\n not authorized by Patriot Act – appeals court<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n “This is not things that governments have ever traditionally
\n been empowered to claim for themselves as authorities.
\n <\/em><\/p>\n

“And to have that change recently … is a radical departure from
\n the operation of traditional liberal societies around the
\n world.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Snowden repeated his position that acts of terrorism in the US
\n and elsewhere have not been thwarted by conducting mass
\n surveillance on citizens.
\n <\/p>\n

\n “Nine times out of 10 when you see someone on the news who’s
\n engaged in some sort of radical jihadist activity, these are
\n people who had a long record,”<\/em> he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n “The reason these attacks happened is not because we didn’t
\n have enough surveillance, it’s because we had too much.”<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/a><\/em>READ MORE: Millennials worldwide show broad support of
\n Edward Snowden – poll<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Aside from average citizens, he warned that journalists are also
\n at risk of having their contacts exposed by the mass
\n surveillance.
\n <\/p>\n

\n “Under these mandatory metadata laws you can immediately see
\n who journalists are contacting, from which you can derive who
\n their sources are.”<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n He excoriated such a turn of events, saying the purpose of a free
\n press in society is to “act as an adversary against the
\n government on behalf of the public.”
\n
<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n Snowden’s comments came on the same day that a US federal appeals
\n court ruled the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone
\n records was illegal. In a unanimous decision, the Second Circuit
\n Court of Appeals in New York called the bulk phone records
\n collection “unprecedented and unwarranted.”<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n The ruling, which Snowden called “extraordinarily
\n encouraging,”<\/em> comes as Congress confronts a June 1 deadline
\n to renew a section of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA’s bulk
\n data surveillance.\n<\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Snowden seems determined to reveal more information
\n from the National Security Agency (NSA) files, hinting there was
\n yet more information about Australia’s intelligence work that
\n would be revealed at a later date.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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