NEW YORK: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, has said the agency has a gun aimed at the head of every United States citizen.

In an interview for a television talk show, the former NSA contractor turned whistleblower said that Americans shouldn’t have to adopt new habits in order to evade government surveillance — nor should people stop sharing their personal, x-rated images.

“The NSA has the greatest surveillance capabilities that we have ever seen in history,” Snowden told John Oliver during an interview that aired on the comedian’s Sunday evening episode of “Last Week Tonight” in New York.

Take a look: US, UK hacked into systems of SIM card firm: report

“Now what they will argue is that they don’t use this for nefarious purposes against American citizens. In some ways that’s true. But the real problem is that they’re using these capabilities to make us vulnerable to them and then saying, well, ‘I have gun pointed at your head. I’m not going to pull the trigger. Trust me.’”

Snowden, the former NSA analyst credited with one of the biggest intelligence leaks in United States history, said revelations about the NSA’s spy programmes shouldn’t stifle free expression.

“The bad news is they are still collecting everyone’s information,” Snowden said, “including your pictures.”

According to Snowden, the NSA’s vast ability in scooping up electronic data knew no bounds even when inappropriate images are in question.

“Even if you send it (a message) to somebody in the United States,” Snowden explained, “your wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go from New York to London and back and get caught up in the database.”

The NSA’s PRISM programme, first revealed by Snowden in 2013, “is how they pull your junk out of Google with Google’s involvement,” he explained.

Published in Dawn April 7th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play