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Snowden issues privacy warning in TV Christmas message

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned about the global threat to privacy when he delivered the Channel 4 Alternative Christmas Message - his first recorded TV interview since he was given asylum in Russia.

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Snowden warns of privacy threat in Christmas Message

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has issued a warning about the threat to privacy in Channel 4's Alternative Christmas Message.

Snowden, who leaked documents that revealed the extent of surveillance by the National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ, said: "Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information.

"The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go."

Edward Snowden warns of global threat to privacy

US whistleblower Edward Snowden will warn about the global threat to privacy today when he delivers the Channel 4 Alternative Christmas Message.

Snowden, who was behind the leak of documents revealing mass surveillance programmes, says in the broadcast:

A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought. And that's a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.

– Edward Snowden, speaking to Channel 4

The 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. Together 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.

Watch Edward Snowden's Alternative Christmas Message

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Snowden to deliver 'Alternative Christmas Message'

Edward Snowden has given Channel 4 his first TV interview since arriving in Moscow Credit: Office of Hans-Christian Stroebele/PA images

The US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is to deliver Channel 4's Alternative Christmas Message tomorrow - in what is thought his first TV interview since arriving in Moscow.

Snowden is to explain why he believes privacy is important, declaring: "Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information.

"The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go.

"Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person."

The Alternative Christmas Message will broadcast on Channel 4 at 4.15pm on Christmas Day. It will also be available to view on 4oD.

Read: Snowden says 'mission accomplished'

Edward Snowden declares: 'Mission accomplished'

Edward Snowden says what he had tried to do was "validated" when journalists published his leaks. Credit: REUTERS/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras/Courtesy of The Guardian

Former US defence contractor Edward Snowden says he has completed what he set out to do, after months of releasing a mass of documents on the US spying on its citizens and other nations.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post, Mr Snowden said he did not want to change society but "I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.”

“All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed," he added.

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