The issues raised by the information leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden are incredibly serious, but there are still many who tune out or fail to understand how governments and intelligence agencies are able to covertly spy upon us and breach our privacy.
So, we should be enormously thankful to British satirist John Oliver who this weekend broadcast an interview he filmed in Moscow with Snowden.
Like all good satire it makes a point so much more effectively because of humour. Check out the hilarious video now, but you may want to make sure there are no kids in the vicinity as the language is sometimes a bit fruity.
The interview with Snowden starts at approximately 13 min 45 seconds:
Part of the video addresses John Oliver’s main concern – could the NSA have a picture of his… umm… dick?
Edward Snowden: If you have your email somewhere like Gmail, hosted on a server overseas, or transferred overseas, or anytime crosses over the borders of the United States, your junk ends up in the database.
John Oliver: So it doesn’t have to be sending your dick to a German?
Edward Snowden: No. Even if you’re sending it to someone within the United States. Your wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go from New York to London and back and get caught up in the database.
…
John Oliver: How are they going to see my dick? I’m only concerned about my penis.
Edward Snowden: When you send your junk through Gmail, for example, that’s stored on Google’s servers. Google moves data from data center to data center, invisibly to you without your knowledge, your data could be moved outside the borders of the United States…
John Oliver: (Head in hands) Oh no…
Edward Snowden: …temporarily. When your junk was passed by Gmail, the NSA caught a copy of that.
Who would have thought that the way to get the average guy in the street interested in Snowden’s revelations was to explain it in terms of the US government being able to see pictures of your todger?
In the past I’ve praised John Oliver for helping explain net neutrality without boring an audience rigid. The chap is brilliant.
Very funny.
"I guess, on the plus side, you might be able to go home because no one knows who the f**k you are"
He held himself well.
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing that, GC.
How do I see this video in UK?
Yes, unfortunately the video appears to be blocked in the UK. Try using a VPN like TunnelBear or HideMyAss to to trick YouTube into believing you're in another country.
Actually, using a VPN is a good idea anyway on the net for privacy reasons.
Try this link
https://youtu.be/XEVlyP4_11M?t=14m2s
Nope
VPN is your friend. See my earlier comment.
The first vid was taken down for copyright infringement, the one now linked to isn't available in the UK. Try a search on youtube for John Oliver: Government Surveillance as unofficial ones not posted by Last Week Tonight may be viewable in the UK (until they get taken down). If the vid is 33 or so minutes long fast foward to around 14 mins.