London: Edward Snowden, who is wanted by American agencies for leaking classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, said surveillance technology today is more intrusive.
In an interview marking the 10 th anniversary of his revelations about surveillance, Snowden said he had no regrets about his actions, The Guardian reported.
After fleeing Hong Kong handing over a huge cache of ‘top-secret documents to journalists’, the whistleblower has been in exile in Russia since 2013.
Compared to today’s technology, the capabilities that US and British intelligence had back in 2013 now seem ‘ child’s play’, he warned.
‘Technology has grown to be enormously influential,” Snowden said. “If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today, 2013 seems like child’s play,’ he was quoted as saying.
Sharing concern about surveillance by governments and Big Tech, he pointed at the threats of commercial surveillance cameras, facial recognition, AI and spyware like Pegasus used to observe journalists and dissidents.
Snowden faced criticism for his citizenship in Russia, especially more intensely after Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, turning to Russia was the ‘only the realistic option’ before him than spending time in the US jail, according to the report.
Despite ten years of cautious life, fearing backlash from the US authorities, Snowden is not dwelling on the past and has no regrets either.
However, he is keeping a low profile reducing public appearance over the last two years with fewer speeches, doing no press interview and social media.
Snowden claims that his revelations gave rise to the ‘widespread use of end-to-end encryption’.
Exactly 10 years ago on Friday, Snowden revealed his identity as ‘the source of the leaks’, according to the report.