Edward Snowden Speaks at the TED2014 Conference via a Telepresence Robot About the Internet and the NSA

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor responsible for leaking a number of classified documents to media outlets in 2013, recently spoke via a Beam telepresence robot from Suitable Technologies at the TED2014 conference in Vancouver, Canada. Chris Anderson, the head of TED, interviewed Snowden about a variety of subjects, including PRISM and other secretive NSA surveillance programs.

The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. “Your rights matter,” he say, “because you never know when you’re going to need them.”

You never know who you might bump into at TED… pic.twitter.com/T0tl9xDSXe

— Chris Anderson (@TEDchris) March 18, 2014