Edward Snowden warns of personal data vulnerability as he takes part in a video conference at the South by Southwest tech event in Texas and answers questions via Twitter to an enthusiastic audience.

FULL: Edward Snowden and ACLU at SXSW

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Published on Mar 10, 2014

Edward Snowden speaks about privacy and technology with the ACLU's Ben Wizner and Christopher Soghoian at SXSW Interactive. -Links are below-

http://washingtonexaminer.com/edward-...

https://www.aclu.org/

https://www.aclu.org/time-rein-survei... - Main "Time to Rein in the Surveillance State
https://www.aclu.org/time-rein-survei... - Patriot Act Info
https://www.aclu.org/time-rein-survei... - FISA Amendments
https://www.aclu.org/time-rein-survei... - FISA Court Info

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Edward Snowden warns of personal data vulnerability

The former NSA contractor takes part in a video conference at the South by Southwest tech event in Texas and answers questions via Twitter to an enthusiastic audience.

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Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden speaks remotely to the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, superimposed over an image of the Constitution. (Spencer Bakalar / Los Angeles Times / March 10, 2014)

By Steve Appleford

March 10, 2014, 9:31 p.m.

AUSTIN, Texas — Edward Snowden brought no bombshells when he arrived to an excited round of applause Monday, his stubbled face relaxed as it was beamed in from across the continents for a "virtual conversation" about the vulnerability of personal data. His presence was event enough.
Public appearances by the former National Security Agency contractor and U.S. exile are rare, and this one was beamed in from an undisclosed location in Russia via several online proxies for his own security, a bit of technological cloak-and-dagger that could only add to his mystique for the three roomfuls of international tech specialists struggling to hear his words in video that was choppy and often inaudible.
His message still got through: Personal information is vulnerable not only to government prying but to growing numbers of outside infiltrators because companies have failed to adequately protect the data of their customers. His own exile after leaking to reporters secret information he had gathered while an NSA consultant has made him a central figure in that conversation, and he says he has no regrets.
"Would I do it again? Absolutely," Snowden said into the camera, in response to one of several questions submitted to him via Twitter (#AskSnowden) and screened backstage at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. "I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale."
He warned, "If we allow the NSA to continue unrestrained, every other government will accept that as a green light to do the same."
The chosen Twitter questions were notably nonconfrontational for a figure often the subject of heated debate even among supporters. One asked whether the mass surveillance was driven by privatization. Another wondered about the potential for society to "reap benefits" from the "big data." None asked about his life in Russia, or what further revelations might be coming.
The first question came from Timothy John Berners-Lee, a British scientist known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, who asked Snowden how he would create an accountability system for governance.


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Edward Snowden discusses NSA leaks at SXSW: 'I would do it again'

• Whistleblower patches in to Texas conference from Russia
• Snowden insists leaks have strengthened national security

• Jon Swaine in New York and Jemima Kiss in Austin
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• The Guardian, Monday 10 March 2014 15.22 EDT

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower whose unprecedented leak of top-secret documents led to a worldwide debate about the nature of surveillance, insisted on Monday that his actions had improved the national security of the United States rather than undermined it, and declared that he would do it all again despite the personal sacrifices he had endured.
In remarks to the SXSW culture and technology conference in Texas, delivered by video link from his exile in Russia, Snowden took issue with claims by senior officials that he had placed the US in danger. He also rejected as demonstrably false the suggestions by some members of Congress that his files had found their way into the hands of the intelligence agencies of China or Russia.
Snowden spoke against the backdrop of an image of the US constitution, which he said he had taken an oath to protect but had seen “violated on a mass scale” while working for the US government. He accepted praise from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, accorded the first question via Twitter, who described him as “acting profoundly in the public interest”.
The session provided a rare and extensive glimpse into the thoughts of Snowden, granted temporary asylum by Russia after the US revoked his passport. He struck back strongly against claims made again last week by the NSA director, General Keith Alexander, that his release of secret documents to the Guardian and other outlets last year had weakened American cyber-defences.
“These things are improving national security, these are improving the communications not just of Americans, but everyone in the world,” Snowden said. “Because we rely on the same standard, we rely on the ability to trust our communications, and without that, we don’t have anything.”
He added later that thanks to the more secure communication activity that had been encouraged by his disclosures, “the public has benefited, the government has benefited, and every society in the world has benefited”.

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Huston-Tillotson University Professor to live in dumpster for year

kvue.com

Professor to live in dumpster for year

by JIM BERGAMO / KVUE News and photojournalist MICHAEL MOORE

Bio | Email | Follow: @JimB_KVUE 

 

kvue.com

Posted on February 4, 2014 at 6:28 PM

Updated today at 9:27 AM

See all 4 photos »

AUSTIN -- Dumpster diving is taking on a whole new meaning at Huston-Tillotson University. It's all about a professor and the number "one." The dean of Huston Tillotson's University College will live on campus for the next year.

His goal is to live in a space one percent the size of the average home, while using one percent of the water and energy used by an average home and producing only one percent of the waste an average home produces.

"This is what's called an eight cubic yard dumpster, also with windows and doors,” said Huston-Tillitson environmental science professor Jeff Wilson, Ph.D.

Wilson made those comments back in October when he checked out dumpsters, not for trash or treasure, but rather to size them up as a future home.

"Telling people you have life dreams, you want to live in a dumpster, it brings sympathy your way,” Wilson said.

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Texas university professor moves into a DUMPSTER on school campus for a year to show students that they can live with less

• Dr. Jeff Wilson, a Harvard-educated environmental science professor at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, moved into the dumpster Tuesday

• The experiment is designed to show students, and the world, that humans can live on a smaller scale and lessen our environmental footprint

• Thankfully for Wilson, who's now known as Professor Dumpster, his new home isn't your ordinary smelly dumpster

• It will be getting kitted out by his students so it includes creature comforts like a shower, kitchen, bed, WiFi and toilet

By Helen Pow
 
PUBLISHED: 01:48 EST, 5 February 2014 | UPDATED: 07:03 EST, 5 February 2014 
 
A university professor in Austin, Texas, has moved into a 33sq ft dumpster, which he plans to call home for an entire year. 
Dr. Jeff Wilson, a Harvard-educated environmental science professor, took up residence in the trash can Tuesday in an effort to show students at Huston-Tillotson University, and the world, that humans can live on a smaller scale and lessen our environmental impact.

Thankfully for Wilson, who's now known as Professor Dumpster, his new home isn't your ordinary smelly dumpster but will be getting kitted out by his students so it includes creature comforts like a shower, kitchen, bed, WiFi and toilet.

Dumpster time: Dr. Jeff Wilson, pictured Tuesday, Dean of the University College and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Huston-Tillotson University, moved into a 33-square foot dumpster on the campus of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas on Tuesday

Outfitting the tiny space is step one in the trash can challenge, and the goal is to design the dumpster to be as energy efficient as possible, with solar panels and an energy producing toilet.
'The idea here is to ultimately show one can have a pretty good life in a dumpster,' Wilson told Fast Company.

However, the dumpster is starting off modestly. Tuesday night, the 6ft 1in Professor Dumpster posted a picture of his new abode on Twitter with a maroon sleeping bag laid out tightly in the small space with little else in view.

If occasionally Wilson needs a break from the box, students can opt to take his place for the night.

One student, Evette Jackson, has already signed up.

Mod cons: Thankfully for Wilson, pictured, his new home isn't your ordinary smelly dumpster but a special version customized by his students that includes creature comforts like a shower, kitchen, bed, WiFi and toilet

Not very big: Wilson posted a picture of his new home on Twitter Tuesday with the comment 'Bird's eye view of dumpster home at bedtime'

'I think it's pretty intriguing,' she told KVUE. 'It's pretty cool. I want to live in it too.'
After the year of dumpster living is up, Wilson plans on taking the bin across the United States, educating students about the possibility of following in his 'less is more' footsteps.

Wilson said the project idea came to him two years ago while he was sipping a latte at Starbucks.

'I looked out the window into the parking lot and saw an eight-yard dumpster and had some sort of strange flash that I was definitely moving into a dumpster,' he told Fast Company.

So when the lease ran out on his lovely, full-sized, apartment a year later, he posted an announcement on Facebook, which read: 'Starting at 6pm, I will be selling all of my home furnishings, clothes, kitchen appliances, and everything else in the apartment for $1 an item.'

+8

Help: Wilson, right, had help from students and other educators including Dr Karen Magid, pictured

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