Earlier this year, this magazine wrote on the increasing pervasiveness of cameras, particularly via drone technology, in our civilian ethos. As drones become increasingly more prominent, debate has swelled on the moral and ethical implications of what many describe as a “surveillance state”.

Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist who needs no introduction, was recently pressed on the topic during a long interview with Rolling Stone magazine. The interview covered a lot of topics, ranging from his thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg, to condoms and everywhere in between. When asked on his thoughts on privacy concerns, Gates offered the following:

“Should there be cameras everywhere in outdoor streets? My personal view is having cameras in inner cities is a very good thing. In the case of London, petty crime has gone down. They catch terrorists because of it. And if something really bad happens, most of the time you can figure out who did it. There’s a general view there that it’s not used to invade privacy in some way. Yet in an American city, in order to take advantage of that in the same way, you have to trust what this information is going to be used for.”

via Rolling Stone

MobiSocial is a start-up from the StartX incubator at Stanford University. Their first product, Omlet, is a messaging app that keeps the data in control of the user. Users can share images, text, video, music with anyone using an iOS or Android device.

When data is shared between strangers, contact information is restricted. The company claims on their website that they’ll never monetize or sell user data.  Prior to founding in 2013, the company sustained itself through research grants.

ASUS  announced at the beginning of the year that all of their new ZenFones will come with Omlet chat.  The company’s overall mission is to create social networking experiences where the user is the customer as opposed to the product.

You can visit their website at www.omlet.me

Photo courtesy of Håkan Dahlström on Flickr

Snowden appeared before thousands of technologists at the South by South West Interactive Festival on Monday, marking the first time he addressed the United States public after leaking the NSA scandal in June.

He wasn’t present in person though, instead appearing on a livestream from Russia, where he currently resides after seeking asylum to the country with assistance from Wikileaks.

“Would I do it again? Absolutely. Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to,” said Snowden.

When asked via Twitter from Tim Berners-Lee,  the inventor of the World Wide Web,  about what he would change about the country’s government surveillance procedures, Snowden responded, “We need public oversight … some way for trusted public figures to advocate for us. We need a watchdog that watches Congress, because if we’re not informed, we can’t consent to these (government) policies.”

Snowden encouraged technologists to help build more user-friendly secure communication applications. Many it seems, have been listening, with companies such as BitTorrent and Mega pushing for more secure and easy to use services.

via CNN

One of the biggest criticisms against exiled vigilante Edward Snowden has been that he didn’t go through the requisite steps within the system before electing to go rogue. Snowden, who continues to live in exile from the United States, has publicly gone on air to help quell these allegations.

“Yes. I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them. As an employee of a private company rather than a direct employee of the US government, I was not protected by US whistleblower laws, and I would not have been protected from retaliation and legal sanction for revealing classified information about lawbreaking in accordance with the recommended process.”

Obama himself had accused Snowden of emotionally jumping the gun, suggesting he was a passionate man “whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions.”, pointing to Policy Directive 19.

via Washington Post