14 DAY TRIAL // The truth is out about PRISM, but the man behind the reveal stayed quiet for several days. His name is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical worker for the NSA, CIA and various defense contractors.
“I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under,” Snowden said in an effort to justify his move, the Guardian reports.
Snowden is the source of the leaked documents from Thursday that exposed the surveillance program run by the NSA and other federal agencies.
Currently in Hong Kong, where he fled after leaking the confidential documents, Snowden might have to face authorities for what he’s done. Under these circumstances, he’s said he’s planning to seek asylum in a country that has the same values he does.
He’s planning to move to Iceland, he said, a country that has “stood up for people over Internet freedom.”
Snowden was an NSA employee for four years, but he’s also worked as a technical worker for several defense contractors, including military technology consulting firms, such as Booz Allen Hamilton which gave him access to the leaked documents.
For those who have managed to avoid the news torrent about PRISM, the project regards routine collects of all incoming and outgoing call data, which includes numbers called, time of calls and call duration, of all Verizon customers, regardless if they are under investigation or not.
Several tech giants, such as Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Microsoft and Apple have also been involved with PRISM despite their statements in which they deny such cooperation.
Seven out of the nine Internet companies have already issued messages in which they denied any knowledge of PRISM prior to the documents leak last week.