Snowden Calls for Global Push to Ensure Digital Privacy

​Former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden on Thursday called on nations to adopt an international treaty that would aim to prevent mass surveillance.

Speaking via video conference from Russia, Snowden outlined the details of the treaty which would include greater protection for whistleblowers along with a clause that criminalizes the practice of mass surveillance.

Under the terms of the agreement, national governments would also be required to ensure “the right to privacy in all future programs and policies. This will make the preservation of privacy a fundamental responsibility of governments, ensuring the protection of these fundamental human rights for generations to come,” Snowden stated.

The accord also referred to as the ‘Snowden Treaty’ forms part of a global campaign encouraging countries to take institutionalized steps to ban mass surveillance.

Last October, the United Nations also called on states involved in mass digital surveillance programs to provide a justification for the systematic interference with the privacy rights of the Internet community.   

Following Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass government surveillance, several countries are introducing new measures, which aim to protect against foreign and domestic surveillance threats.

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Most recently, the European Court advocate general issued a landmark legal recommendation on Wednesday, which ruled that the EU user data transferred to the U.S. by technology companies violates EU's data protection and rights to privacy laws.

If accepted, the ruling would also grants European Union member states the power to suspend the transfer of information with the United States.

"Where systemic deficiencies are found in the third country to which the personal data is transferred, the Member States must be able to take the measures necessary to safeguard their fundamental rights," the EU court statement said.

If upheld in a final ruling, the decision would put an end to the “safe harbour” provision that grants U.S. tech companies, such as Facebook and Amazon, the ability to transfer European data to U.S. servers.