Edward Snowden promotes global treaty to curtail surveillance

I wonder what the chances are for something like this taking off. On the one hand it is popular for politicians around the globe to criticize the U.S. surveillance programs - on the other hand, most governments probably want the same kind of power over their own citizens that mass surveillance can give them.<p>Governments which don&#x27;t currently have the technical means to run these kind of programs might be more likely to sign up.<p>I really hope some country will step up soon and get the ball rolling.

A more realistic option would be to institute a strong audit process. Anytime personal data is viewed or matched against some criteria, it would be logged. By default, those logs would be available after something like a few years, unless there&#x27;s an ongoing investigation (and that extension would be logged along with who&#x2F;why it was authorized).<p>The only way something like this could even work is if there was a completely separate government agency that was both empowered and motivated to be the counterweight against warrantless surveillance. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this could ever happen.

The only way surveillance on the current scale will be defeated is if technology makes it moot.<p>Perhaps someone could comment on whether current encryption protocols are sufficient? If not, what would it take?

I can see something like the Open Skies treaty, actually working. But that doesn&#x27;t end the surveillance it merely formalises the situation so all parties have equal access to the same level of spying capabilities on each other.

They were already doing it secretly and lying about it. Why wouldn&#x27;t they just sign the treaty, win their political points and votes, and go right back to doing it secretly and lying about it?

He&#x27;s got a better chance of being pardoned, unfortunately.