In a near-perfect example of how there is always more than one way to look at things, Edward Snowden has very different views on Amazon than Amazon users do. On Friday, Snowden appeared -- as ever -- via video link at the surveillance symposium at the Cato Institute. He condemned Amazon's lack of encryption of customers' searches, referring to the practice as "morally irresponsible".

But Snowden's condemnation of Amazon comes at the same time as a study by Bizrate Insights which finds that more than 45 percent of online shoppers trust the site with their payment and personal information. So why the disparity?

As we know from the past twelve months, Edward Snowden is a man with more than a passing interest in privacy. His disdain for Amazon's attitude to encryption has been reported in -- of all places -- the Washington Post. This is interesting because, as pointed out in the article, Jeff Bezos is not only the founder and chief executive of Amazon, but also the owner of the Washington Post.

Snowden is concerned that Amazon goes to the effort of encrypting payments while failing to do the same for customer searches. This means, he says, that the reading and shopping habits of Amazon's customers are open to governmental snooping. While it's unlikely that the government is interested in which books you buy from Amazon, this is not really the point, and Snowden suggests that anyone from ISPs to network providers could see what you're looking for.

At the same time a survey of over 6,200 people carried out by Bizrate Insights showed that while more than three quarters of online shoppers are unhappy with the level of security offered by retailers, Amazon actually fared well in the trust rankings. The online giant found itself in third position, gaining the trust of 45.4 percent of people -- it fell behind PayPal (48.9 percent), and banks and credit unions (72 percent).

Hayley Silver, vice president of Bizrate Insights said:

Among these tech transactional titans, it is those that have low barriers for usageandthat have put consumer protection in the forefront that have earned the greatest amount of trust.

Lower down the list, Apple was trusted by just 21.4 percent of those questioned, eBay by 18.7 percent, and Google a mere 12.9 percent.

Photo credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock

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Edward Snowden condemns Amazon's 'morally irresponsible' encryption policy -- users don't care

Techonomy is proud to present KeenON, a series ofinterviews by techonologist and author Andrew Keen that explores the intersection of tech, business, and culture.

It isnt surprising that Edward Snowden chose then Washington Post reporterBarton Gellmanas one of the earliest recipients of his leaked NSA documents. Gellman is the author of abest-selling bookabout Dick Cheney as well as manyinfluential articlesabout the war on terror, and thus was a natural choice for Snowden when he sought a trustworthy journalist to publicize the PRISM materials.

So was Snowden a hero? Not surprisingly, Gellman wont be drawn into such a clichd analysis. What he does insist, however, is that Snowden was an important figure who has sparked a massively important conversationone, in his words, with legsthat is still going on today. Its a subject, Gellman insists, that has not only changed the way that Silicon Valley companies like Google and Twitter do their data business with the U.S. government, but may have changed the nature of journalism. Indeed, its such a vital subject that Gellman himself is currently writing a book about what he calls our surveillance-industrial state of affairs. The book, he says, will break new ground in how we imagine our electronically networked world.

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Edward Snowden is surprised he's still in Russia and blames the State Department for him being there. The NSA leaker said so in a clip from his interview with Brian Williams that aired on Wednesday's Today.

"The reality is I never intended to end up in Russia," Snowden explained. "I had a flight booked to Cuba onward to Latin America, and I was stopped because the United States government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in Moscow Airport. So when people ask 'Why are you in Russia?' I say, 'Please ask the State Department.' "

STORY: Sony Nabs Film Rights to Edward Snowden Book

Secretary of State John Kerry hit back at Snowden's comments in a live interview on the Wednesday edition of the NBC morning show, saying Snowden can return to the U.S. whenever he wants.

"For a supposedly smart guy, that's a pretty dumb answer, frankly," Kerry said. "If Mr. Snowden wants to come back to the United States today, we'll have him on a flight today. We'd be delighted for him to come back. He should come back. That's what a patriot would do. A patriot would not run away and look for refuge in Russia or Cuba or some other country. A patriot would stand up in the United States and make his case to the American people. He can come home, but he's a fugitive from justice, which is why he is not being permitted to fly around the world."

Kerry added that Snowden should trust the U.S. justice system and says the NSA leaker "stole" information and did "great damage" to the United States.

"But to be hiding in Russia, an authoritarian country, and to have just admitted he was really just trying to get to Cuba -- what does that tell you?" Kerry said. "I think he's confused. I think it's very sad."

VIDEO: Edward Snowden Tells Tech Community It Can 'Enforce Our Rights'

Later Wednesday night when the full interview aired on NBC News, Snowden told Williams that he was "trained as a spy."

"I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover overseas -- pretending to work in a job that I'm not -- and even being assigned a name that was not mine," Snowden said in his first with a U.S. television network.

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Edward Snowden Tells Brian Williams U.S. Government 'Trap[ped]' Him in Moscow (Video)

Former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden was given the Carl von Ossietzky award in Berlin on Sunday, a medal which honors those who exhibit extraordinary civic courage or commitment to the spread and defense of human rights.

According to website of the International League for Human Rights in Berlin, which has awarded the prize since 1962, Snowden was chosen because of his "momentous decision of conscience ... to put [his] personal freedom on the line" to expose the "abuse of power" exercised by the US and Germany.

Snowden shares the medal with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke his story, along with Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who was in Berlin to accept it on the whole trio's behalf. Snowden is living in Russia under temporary asylum and is barred from entering Germany.

Several speeches were given honoring the work of Snowden, Greenwald and Poitras, including one from former federal Interior Minister Gerhart Baum and human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck, who represents Snowden. Baum spoke of how the Snowden had "opened our eyes to the largest intelligence surveillance scandal I know."

On Friday, Kaleck was reported by The Guardian, a British news outlet, as calling on European countries to actively prosecute CIA agents involved in torture who come into their countries, following the release of the CIA torture report.

Snowden, who is held in high esteem in many circles in Germany, also appeared via Skype.

Carl von Ossietzky, determined dissident

The von Ossietzky medal is named after the German Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist who spoke out actively against the Nazi regime. He died as a result of conditions in the concentration camp where he was held, after being convicted of high treason. It was he who exposed Germany's violation of the Treaty of Versailles through its re-militarization under Adolf Hitler.

Former winners of the medal include famous German authors Heinrich Bll and Gnter Grass.

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Brian Williams

NBC News' Brian Williams has bookedEdward Snowden's first U.S. television interview, the network said on Thursday.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked government surveillance documents, has previously given interviews to a German broadcaster and delivered an address via satellite at the South by Southwest festival.

STORY: Sony Nabs Film Rights to Edward Snowden Book

In April, he also appeared on Russia Today in a prerecorded clip asking questions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Snowden has not, however, sat down with a U.S. broadcaster since his video remarks to The Guardian were first posted in July 2013. He has given interviews to U.S. newspapers including The New York Timesand the Washington Post since the story broke.

Williams interviewed Snowden in Moscow for "several hours" this week, NBC said, for an hourlong special to air at 10 p.m. on May 28.

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Edward Snowden: Movie Mash-Up
An English 124 movie mash-up project on Edward Snowden, the most wanted man in the world. Video clips from NBC News, Vanity Fair, and The National. Music from #39;24 #39; Theme and scored by Sean ...

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Like Americans, most Russians have seen the TV disclaimer: "All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental" just maybe not so much in this case.

The storylineof "Where the Motherland Begins,"a Russian spy series that aired on state television this fall,opens with a hurried flight from Hong Kong to Moscow inJuly 2013.There's a skinny American dressed in what passes as DC-office casual. He's a former NSA contractor. He hasa laptop. He has exposed Americansurveillance of people across the globe. And he's wearing glasses those glasses.

Ladies and gentlemen,meet "James Snow." Remember: any resemblance to anyone real is "purely coincidental."

When I got the script, I was like 'Hey, wait. It's ... it's ... it's ... Snowden,' says ArnasFedaraviius, the 23-year-oldLithuanian actor cast in the role.

Edward Snowden the real Edward Snowden is still living in Moscow after being granted asylum in Russialast August He gives the occasional interview, but most details of his life are left to speculation.We do know he'sstill trying to raise awareness ofmass surveillance.

But for James Snow the fake Edward Snowden the Moscow adventure is just beginning.For one, that plane from Hong Kong never quite landed.The eight-part "Where the Motherland Begins"takes the storyline in another direction entirely.

Over the course of the show,we learn that James Snow is no simple ex-NSA contractor:He's the child of a Soviet molewho infiltrated his way into Reagan-era America. And now he's coming home. (No word on a crossover episode with "The Americans," sadly.)

In the real world,Fedaraviius says Moscow is nice,but it's definitely not home.And James Snow is hopefully a stepping stone to bigger things. He's already appeared alongside John Malkovich in 2012s "Siberian Education," and he's starringin his first feature film later this year,a Russian production called The Guest.

Still, for the Snow role, Fedaraviius found himself watching the early Guardian videos of Snowden, picking up on his various physical ticsand wondering about the man on the screen.You get the feeling he's very confident about everything he says in the interviews ... and very humble,"Fedaraviius says

But between the filmed moments, he wondered if the real Snowden was more fragile. He sensed some hand trembling"and tried to inject that into the role.

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I'm not Edward Snowden, I just play him on TV | Public ...

In June, when President Obama was in Europe for a visit, Harald Range, Germanys top public prosecutor, toldthe German Parliament that he was undertaking an investigation. Former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden had claimed that the United States government had bugged Chancellor Angela Merkels phone, as part of the country'slarge-scale electronic espionage, and listened in, for years. In May, Obama saidthat Snowdens disclosures about spying on an ally had created strains in Americas relationship with Germany.Merkel had called him onthe phoneprobably ona landlineto seek clarification, and Obamahad apologized.Considering the leaders were about to see each other, for a summit in Brussels,the timing of Range's announcement was a little awkward.

But this week, according toReuters, Range announced that there is no proof that U.S. Intelligence had, in fact, tapped Merkels phone. He said, "The document presented in public as proof of an actual tapping of the mobile phone is not an authentic surveillance order by the NSA. It does not come from the NSA database."

"There is no proof at the moment which could lead to charges that Chancellor Merkel's phone connection data was collected or her calls tapped."

The document presented in public as proof of an actual tapping of the mobile phone is not an authentic surveillance order by the NSA.

Harald Range, German prosecutor

Range said that neither Snowden, nor Germanys foreign intelligence agency, nor Der Spiegelwhich held a document that seemed to be evidence of tappinghad offered further evidence for his prosecution.

Which leads to a whole bouquet of new questions: could Snowdens information possibly be inaccurate, or could it be some sort of disinformation? What was the Der Spiegel document that seemed so convincing a few months ago? And: if the tapping wasnt real, why did Obama rush to apologize and make nice to Merkel? If true that there was no wiretap, an entire diplomatic drama needs to be reinterpreted.

Meanwhile, Germany's Green and Left parties have rallied to bring Snowden to Berlin (from Moscow) to furnish evidence about NSA machinations. Buton Friday, according to the Guardian, Germanys constitutional court ruled against them. The German government maintained that Snowden's presence in Germany could be detrimental to relationships with the U.S.

Whats behind this sudden new friendliness? Possibly, it will require a new Snowden to find out.

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