KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman
It isn #39;t surprising that Edward Snowden chose then Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman as one of the earliest recipients of his leaked NSA documents. Gellman is the author of a best-selling...

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KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman - 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.

es/jr (dpa, epd)

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Edward Snowden gets human rights award in Berlin | News ...

Citizenfour, Laura Poitras's documentary on Edward Snowden, has been named best feature at the International Documentary Association awards.

The filmmaker was presented with the award on Friday night (December 5) in a ceremony held at the Paramount Studios lot.

Getty Images / The Guardian

She met Snowden whilst working on an investigative programme into government surveillance following 9/11, receiving emails from Snowden under the alias "citizenfour."

Poitras eventually met Snowden, who handed over classified documents that revealed surveillance programmes being carried out by the NSA.

Citizenfour beat Finding Vivian Maier, Point and Shoot, The Salt of the Earth and Tales of the Grim Sleeper to the title.

It has been announced that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Snowden in a new film to be directed by Oliver Stone.

It is believed the as-yet-untitled film will begin shooting next month in Munich.

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Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins international award

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

Link:
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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KeenON: Journalist and NSA Expert Barton Gellman

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