NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden recently criticized Facebook, Amazon and Google for abusing people’s personal data and insisted that people need to understand the threat to privacy that these social media platforms pose.
He made the comments when he appeared via video link at Web Summit in Lisbon on Monday. He said that Big Tech companies make people vulnerable by collecting their personal data, which they then share with governments in what he called a “deal with the devil” and “Faustian bargain.”
He said: “These people are engaged in abuse, particularly when you look at Google and Amazon, Facebook and their business model. “And yet every bit of it, they argue, is legal. Whether we’re talking about Facebook or the NSA, we have legalized the abuse of the person through the personal.”
Although Snowden believes that people are becoming more aware of privacy issues and growing angrier about such violations, he thinks that a greater understanding of the specific abuse that is being carried out against them is needed.
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