Snowden Says American Telecom Companies Are The NSA Crown Jewels

In a recently published interview with Der Spiegel Edward Snowden has had some pretty strong words to say with regards to how the NSA operates in the USA. Apparently the NSA is being assisted by private companies in its surveillance efforts, though he says this is very hard to prove. This led Snowden to state that:

“The names of the cooperating telecom companies are the crown jewels of the NSA”

Additionally Edward Snowden has warned that multinational telecommunications companies with American headquarters should not be trusted until they prove otherwise that they are not conducting spying activities. He states this is a very unfortunate series of events because the USA has some of the best and most reliable telecommunications services in the world.

“The companies should write enforceable clauses into their terms, guaranteeing their clients that they are not being spied on. And they should include technical guarantees. If you could move even a single company to do such a thing, it would improve the security of global communications” said Snowden.

Image courtesy of AP Kin Cheung