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By John Glenday, Reporter

October 13, 2014 | 2 min read

Renegade NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden has advised internet users to discontinue use of popular services such as Dropbox, Facebook and Google after citing the providers as being ‘hostile to privacy’.

Via video link to the New Yorker Festival Snowden took to task those who are more blasé about their rights, saying: “When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ 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.”

Specifically Snowden singled out Dropbox for criticism, pointing out that the platform does not encrypt data while it’s on your computer, only when it is in transit, unlike other services such as SpiderOak.

Snowden did concede that Facebook and Google had taken steps to tighten up their procedures following the fracas surrounding his revelations of government snooping but said that these didn’t go far enough.

Refuting suggestions that a dilution of privacy is a necessary evil in the fight against crime Snowden pointed out that governments can still seek warrants for access to suspects phones, giving them access to encrypted data and even demand the info directly from companies such as Apple, AT&T and Verizon.

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