End of mass surveillance in ‘alternative’ Christmas message: Snowden

London –  NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has reportedly urged an end to mass surveillance in his two-minute Christmas message that was carried on Channel 4 as an alternative to the British Queen’s traditional message.

The 30-year old former NSA contractor made a reference to novelist George Orwell, author of 1984, saying the surveillance technology described in his works was nothing compared to what we have today’.

According to the BBC, Snowden said that a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all and the conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust people can place both in the technology that surrounds them and the government that regulates it.

He further noted that if the government really wants to know how people feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.

Snowden has been charged with espionage by the US authorities after he released trove of highly classified data related to the nation’s mass surveillance programmes.

The whistleblower has been granted a temporary asylum by Russia for a period of one year.