[caption id="attachment_107718" align="alignright" width="241"] Snowden said the majority of Americans are not fully aware of how wide-ranging the government's spying programs are.[/caption]
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, plans to develop technology that can hamper US governments surveillance activities across the globe.
The American whistleblower announced his plan for creating the anti-surveillance technology at the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference via a video link from Moscow, Russia on Saturday.
"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."
Speaking at the New York City conference, Snowden also defended his disclosures of confidential documents showing massive spying activities by the US both inside the country and in foreign states.
He said that the majority of Americans are not fully aware of how wide-ranging the US government's surveillance programs are.
"If we're going to have a democracy and an enlightened citizenry, if were 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 cant have the government shut us out from every action that theyre doing," Snowden commented.
He said this is the American citizens right to know the broad outlines of government policies that significantly impact on our lives."
Snowden is wanted by the US under the Espionage Act for leaking tens of thousands of top secret documents about US spying activities. He is currently living in Russia under a temporary asylum.