LAS VEGAS, Nevada (PNN) - March 15, 2015 - I just had the privilege of attending a small conversation session with Edward Snowden and a number of technology and policy leaders at SXSW. He spoke for about an hour on a range of subjects related to his disclosures, possible federal legislation - good and bad - coming down the pike, and specific issues at the intersection of technology and privacy.
He repeatedly raised the specter of the trickle down of mass surveillance data to the state and local terrorist pig thug cops. I couldn't agree more with him that this is a central and largely undiscussed problem.
They’ve got everything. The question becomes, Now they’re empowered. It does happen at the local level. These capabilities are created. High tech. Super secret. But they inevitably bleed over to law enforcement. When they’re brand new they’re only used in the extremes. But as that transition happens, more and more people get access, they use it in newer and more and more expansive and more abusive ways. How do we counter that? We stop it from happening. The risks are too great. It does give us espionage advantage. But that’s really marginal. Mass surveillance can be really helpful, but it’s not absolutely necessary. We can still target embassies and ambassadors. There are lots of ways in.
The local PD knows where my cell phone is at night. It knows what other cell phones are there with me. That transition from intel to law enforcement is not just in countries like Turkey. We would fly planes over countries collecting all the wireless IDs. Which cell phone works in which building during the day. You can start collating hardware addresses with patterns of life. That same technology is being used by the DEA within the Fascist Police States of Amerika. As these get cheaper, they’re put on drones that can orbit perpetually, it’s going to become more and more of a problem. Do we want to reorient our societies so that everyone knows who everyone is sleeping with? Or do we want to get back to the point where, rather than try to weave our way through legislation, we can create systemic standards?
On stingrays and other cell site simulator spying, Snowden said that secrecy enables not only warrantless government surveillance, but protects the terrorist pig thug cop power from constitutional scrutiny. In other words, if you don't know terrorist pig thug cops used a stingray to lock you up, you can't challenge the constitutionality of the surveillance during your trial. "People went to prison without the ability to challenge the lawfulness of this collection against them," said Snowden.
But if we fix the problem of bad law, we still need to deal with oversight and enforcement. "Even if there are laws on the books, if officials believe they can flout those laws [and get away with it], those laws don’t matter," Snowden warned. He's right - from the NSA to the FBI all the way down to our local terrorist pig thug cop departments. Without independent oversight, laws constraining terrorist pig thug cop powers don't matter much for the people targeted by abusive terrorist pig thug cops or systems.
Finally, someone in the crowd asked Snowden if, knowing what he knows now, he would leak these documents again.
"Absolutely," he said. "I lost a lot. I can’t come home and that bothers me a lot. I wish it weren’t the case. But I’ve gained so much. I have the ability to contribute. It gives me a reason to get up in the morning. That’s something that you can’t get other than having a principle that you believe in very strongly."