Snowden slams Amazon for leaking customer data to the NSA

Appearing remotely at the Ted 2014 conference in Vancouver, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden publicly criticized Amazon for leaking info like a sieve.

Snowden has publicly challenged the policies of major tech companies before, most notably during his live video appearance at the South by South West conference. This is, however, the first time the former NSA contractor has singled out Amazon, according to numerous conference attendees and a branch of TedX.

Calling Amazon “the world’s library,” Snowden explained that intelligence agencies are currently able to monitor whatever you read, implying negligence on the part of Amazon for not implementing proper encryption.

“If you look for the book ‘1984’ on Amazon, the NSA knows about it. All companies need to switch to encrypted browsing by default.” -Snowden

— TEDxFultonStreet (@TEDxFultonSt) March 18, 2014

The world’s library, Amazon, is unencrypted, so all the global intelligence services know what you’re looking at.” Snowden #TED

— Erik Hersman (@whiteafrican) March 18, 2014

During the talk, Snowden also reiterated numerous points previously touched on during his SXSW talk, including the reasoning behind his decision to leak classified documents.

“I didn’t do this to be safe; I did this to do what was right. I’m not going to stop my work in the public interest” Edward Snowden #TED2014

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) March 18, 2014

“We need our companies to work very hard to represent the needs of the user and advocate for their rights.” – Edward Snowden, #TED2014

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) March 18, 2014

Snowden was interviewed via a Beam telecommunications device by Ted Talks head Chris Anderson and World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee.