SAO PAULO: Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff praised the United States on Wednesday for its decision to ease control over the Internet and called for a more democratic, transparent network following the US National Security Agency spying scandal.

Rousseff spoke at a global conference she convened on how to govern a safer, less US-centered Internet after revelations that she and other world leaders had been spied upon by the NSA.

“The Internet we want will only be possible in a scenario of respect for human rights, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression,” she said.

“I salute the US government’s recently announced plan to replace its links to IANA and ICANN with a global management of those institutions,” she added, referring to the US-based bodies in charge of assigning Internet domains or addresses.

Revelations last year by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden that the United States spied on Internet users with secret programs prompted worldwide calls for reduced US control over the network now connecting one-third of the world’s population.

Rousseff, whose personal emails and phone calls were targeted by the NSA, according to documents leaked by Snowden, said massive surveillance of the Internet was unacceptable.

At the opening of the NETmundial conference, Rousseff signed into law groundbreaking legislation guaranteeing the privacy and neutrality of the Net in Brazil, which had been passed by Congress just a few hours earlier.

Government officials, industry executives and academics from around the World participating in the two-day conference are expected to agree on a set of principles to enhance online privacy while preserving the network’s self-regulated nature.—Reuters