Skip to main content

Snowden says that you should avoid Dropbox, Facebook, and Google

russia and china have cracked encrypted snowden files says report
Image used with permission by copyright holder
NSA whistleblower and privacy activist Edward Snowden might be hiding out in Russia to avoid the United States authorities, but that doesn’t mean he can’t dial in a remote video interview for The New Yorker Festival. In his time on camera, Snowden shared a few privacy tips for users, which essentially boiled down to avoiding all of those services and sites you’re currently signed up to.

Recommended Videos

While sites such as Google and Facebook have cleaned up their act to an extent, said Snowden, they remain “dangerous services” in terms of data protection and privacy. Ironic, then, that the live video interview was hosted on Google Hangouts and YouTube.

Snowden also advised users to “get rid of Dropbox” because of its lack of local encryption. As Dropbox said the last time it came under fire from Snowden, data is encrypted on the company’s servers and while in transit, but a third-party solution is required if you want to encrypt the files on your own computer. Some alternative syncing tools offer this by default.

“When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right,'” said Snowden, as TechCrunch reports. “You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights.”

Snowden recommended that users switch to apps such as RedPhone and Silent Circle rather than relying on default SMS tools, and said that increased encryption on mobile devices should be welcomed — criminals seeking to exploit the extra protection can still be exposed via a warrant or subpoena, said Snowden.

As for eventually returning to the US? “I’ve told the government again and again in negotiations, you know, that if they’re prepared to offer an open trial, a fair trial in the same way that [whistleblower and activist] Dan Ellsberg got, and I’m allowed to make my case to the jury, I would love to do so. But to this point they’ve declined.”

You can check out the full hour-long interview below.

David Nield
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…
Google is creating ‘internet surveillance DRM,’ critics say
Google Drive in Chrome on a MacBook.

Google is working on a system to fight fraud and make the internet “more private and safe,” but it’s just come in for some blistering criticism from software engineers behind the Vivaldi web browser. According to them, it’s a “dangerous” idea that could lead to greater surveillance of ordinary people.

The subject of this kerfuffle is Google’s Web Environment Integrity project, or WEI. Its purpose, Google says, is to stymy bad actors by providing a piece of code on a website that can be checked with a trusted attestor (such as Google) to ensure the visitor is who they say they are. That could prevent cheating in games, for example, or ensure that ads are being properly served to readers.

Read more
Using LastPass? You need to switch urgently, says security firm
A dark mystery hand typing on a laptop computer at night.

It’s a good idea to use one of the best password managers to keep your logins safe, but now a security company is warning that one of the most popular password managers in the world is not safe to use.

The extraordinary claim comes from Intego, a firm that specializes in Mac security. Intego made its assertion based on a series of security breaches LastPass has suffered in recent months, the way LastPass has responded to those incidents, and the underlying technology LastPass uses to protect customer accounts.

Read more
Major tax services are sending your data to Meta and Google
fake irs emails are delivering dangerous new malware this tax season 1040 form being filled out

A new report claims that Meta's tracking Pixel has been used to collect your financial information when using popular tax filing services to send in your return. This is disturbing news for taxpayers that likely assumed these online tax services were keeping such information locked up securely.

The types of data collected vary but are said to possibly include your filing status, adjusted gross income (rounded to the nearest thousand), and the amount of your refund (rounded to the nearest hundred). This information would be quite useful in targeting advertising to those with disposable income and help determine which people to target when tax refunds arrive. As if this wasn't bad enough, your name, phone number, and the names of dependents such as your children are being obfusticated then sent to Meta by some tax filing services. According to the report by The Markup the obfustication is reversible.

Read more