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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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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.

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