NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden doesn't yet know whether he'll be spending the next year in a U.S. prison or an undisclosed location in Russia. Nevertheless, Snowden hopes to work on anti-surveillance technologies in the future.

During a nearly 90-minute discussion at the Hackers on Planet Earth Conference (HOPE) on Saturday, in which Snowden participated via Google Hangouts, the whistle blower said he wants to work on tools that help people better protect their privacy.

"I think we the peopleyou the people, you in this room right now, have both the means and the capability to help build a better future by encoding our rights into the programs and protocols upon which we rely every day," Snowden said. "And that's what a lot of my future work is going to be involved in, and I hope you'll join me."

Snowden didn't specify what shape his work would take: Whether he would be involved with producing code for new encryption and privacy-protecting technologies, or whether he would focus on promoting tools already under development for the average user.Nevertheless, he had some definite ideas about what kind of tools were needed to protect an individual's privacy online.

"Generally, when I talk about this I say encryption. I say encryption, encryption, encryption," Snowden said. "Because it's an important first step that denies the government access to anything more typically than a suspicion, which is drawn from association [metadata]."

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NSA leaker Edward Snowden, charged by the US with spying and still holding out in Russia sans a passport, has a new career plan.

Edward Snowden speaks to the Hope X conference on Saturday. Screenshot by CNET

Edward Snowden plans to develop and promote anti-surveillance technology to hamper government spying across the globe, the former National Security Agency contractor told a group of hackers on Saturday.

Snowden, who leaked confidential documents detailing the extensive surveillance activities of the US government's NSA and the UK government's GCHQ, spoke to the HOPE X conference in NYC via a video link from Moscow.

He asked the hacking community to channel its resources into developing anti-surveillance technologies that will make government spying more difficult and said he plans to spend much of his future time doing the same.

"We the people -- you the people, you in this room right now -- have both the means and the capability to improve the future by encoding our rights into programs and protocols by which we rely every day...and that's what a lot of my future work is going to be involved in, and I hope you'll join me in making that a reality," he said.

Snowden also defended his actions in relation to leaking confidential documents from the US intelligence agency to the media. He said most Americans have little concept of how wide-ranging their government's surveillance activities are, but they "have a right as Americans and as members of the global community to know the broad outlines of government policies that significantly impact on our lives."

"If we're going to have a democracy and an enlightened citizenry, if we're going to provide the consent of the governed, we have to know what is going on, we have to know the broad outlines of a policy and we can't have the government shut us out from every action that they're doing," Snowden said.

Snowden is currently living in Russia after fleeing the United States last year. The former NSA contractor's Russian visa expires at the end of July. He former contractor has requested an extension. Snowden did not comment Saturday whether his visa has been extended.

Charged under the Espionage Act, Snowden told The Guardian last week that he doesn't believe he can have a fair trial if he returns to the US.

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Snowden wants to build anti-surveillance tech - CNET

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden says the analysts who monitored the texts and e-mails of millions of Americans would sometimes share intercepted nude photos and sex texts with colleagues.

Snowden, in a lengthy interview with the Guardian published this weekend, said he and his colleagues sometimes doubted the ethics of what they were doing.

Many of the people searching through the haystacks (of information) were young, enlisted guys, 18 to 22 years old, Snowden told the publication. In the course of their daily work, they stumble across something that is completely unrelated in any sort of necessary sense for example, an intimate nude photo of someone in a sexually compromising situation. But theyre extremely attractive. So what do they do?

They turn around in their chair and they show a coworker. And their coworker says, Oh, hey, thats great. Send that to Bill down the way, and then Bill sends it to George, George sends it to Tom, and sooner or later this persons whole life has been seen by all of these other people.

Snowden told the Guardian that the analysts were comfortable sharing the information because they worked in small offices where everyone knew everyone else. Its never reported, because the auditing of these systems is incredibly weak, he said. The proof of that, Snowden said, was his own situation.

A 29-year-old walked in and out of the NSA with all of their private records, Snowden said. What does that say about their auditing? They didnt even know.

But Snowden defended his colleagues, saying they were normal people, not mustache-twirling villains. Those who objected to the NSAs snooping would not complain because they saw what previous whistle-blowers had to live with pulled out of the shower at gunpoint, naked, in front of their families.

We all have mortgages, Snowden said. We all have families.

Snowden, now 31, was a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton when he leaked details of U.S. surveillance programs to the Guardian and the Washington Post. The first reports were published in June 2013, setting off an immediate global firestorm. Snowden, who was in hiding in Hong Kong at the time, fled to Moscow.

The Guardian and Post won the Pulitzer prize for public service for their coverage of Snowden. President Barack Obama promised to scale back surveillance of American citizens. Last week, Germany ordered the CIA station chief out of the country.

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Snowden: NSA snoops shared intercepted sextings