Snowden Predicts Global iPhone Hack, Records Song (popsci.com)

Edward Snowden criticized the FBI for leaving open security holes found in the iPhone, predicting the hack will now become globally available by the end of 2016. "Personally, I think we'll see it by the end of August," he wrote to his two million followers on Twitter, where one British newspaper reports Snowden was also "recently invited into a Twitter private group chat with a lot of teenage girls who didn't know who he was." (Snowden asked them to call him "Ed," and warned them that if they messaged him, the NSA would read their messages.)

Friday Snowden also tweeted a 2013 article about the U.C. Davis police officer who used pepper spray on protesters, writing that the officer was later awarded $38,000 "for his 'pain and suffering'." But Snowden has also been collaborating with French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre, contributing samples of his voice to a six-minute track to be included on an upcoming album. "Technology can actually increase privacy," Snowden says on the track, which is available on YouTube. "The question is: Why are our private details that are transmitted online, why are your private details that are stored on our personal devices, any different than the details and private records of our lives that are stored in our private journals?"

Comments

War against mass surveillance continues

[Morgaine]

Snowden's social tweets aren't of any great consequence, but media stories about him still play a vital role because the war against mass surveillance of western populations continues.

Without pushback by media and citizenry, our so-called democratic states were on an unhindered evolution from relative freedom to strong and very opaque police states. Snowden's efforts brought some much-needed illumination and public input to the whole area. After all, our governments are supposed to be working on our behalf against the bad guys, and not treating the entire populations of our countries as the enemy.

Some people are expressing boredom about Snowden's social activities. Well that's easily handled, just ignore the stories if you have no interest in them. They still play an important role in the media, because the pressure brought about by his revelations still needs to be maintained. And he's probably trying to have a social life too, which can't be easy in his circumstances.