Brett Molina

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Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden says the NSA is "setting fire to the future of the Internet" with surveillance practices he first revealed last year.

During a chat at the SXSW festival Monday, Snowden addressed the NSA's tactics, discussed in an investigative series by The Guardian last summer.

Snowden says elements are in place for an oversight system to track these practices, but questions whether there is any interest in this type of monitoring. "We need a watchdog that watches Congress," he says.

Snowden also championed the use of encryption to secure users, noting that the security measure needs to be treated as a "basic protection" for citizens and not as a "black art."

For full details from Snowden's chat, follow the updates below:

1:02 p.m.: Crowd applauds as Snowden's chat concludes. Thanks for joining us.

12:59 p.m.: Snowden is asked how satisfied he is with global debate on mass surveillance. He says his ultimate goal was not to tell governments how to act. "What I wanted to do was to inform the public so they could make a decision for what we should be doing."

He also notes "every society has benefited" from the disclosures. On whether he would do this again? "Absolutely, yes."

"I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and I saw that the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale," says Snowden.

12:56 p.m.: Snowden is asked about whether there are benefits of data collection on a societal level without opening up to mass surveillance. He says the important thing is letting people know when data is collected. "Data should not be collected without peoples' knowledge or consent."

12:54 p.m.: Snowden, on his best evidence that encryption works: he says the U.S. has a huge team trying to track him and his work, and they haven't.

12:49 p.m.: Next question for Snowden is what steps can users take individually to secure themselves. Snowden suggests full disk encryption to protect devices if they're seized, network encryption and plug-ins such as NoScript.

Snowden also praised the mixed routing network Tor, which he says encrypts from the user through the Internet service provider to the cloud.

Soghoian also warns consumers to pay more attention to the services they use and how they use information. He also notes advantages of paying instead of using free tools. "If you want a secure service, you have pay for it."

12:43 p.m.: On encryption, Snowden says it needs to be treated less like a "black art" and more as a "basic protection."

"The bottom line is that encryption does work," he adds.

12:41 p.m.: Snowden is asked whether the NSA's actions could prompt other countries to follow suit. He says it's one of the primary problems with the NSA's activity. Snowden says "if we allow the NSA to continue unrestrained, the international community will accept that as the green light" to institute similar practices.

12:38 p.m.: Snowden is asked why it's less bad for big corporations to have access to user data instead of the government. "The government has the ability to deprive you of rights," he says, noting companies can monitor data to sell products or sell information to other companies, which can be bad, but users have legal options.

12:36 p.m.: Soghoian reacting to the people that think what Snowden did was wrong: "His disclosures have improved Internet security."

12:32 p.m.: Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the Internet, asks the first question via email, starting off by thanking Snowden for his work. He asks if he could install an accountability system, what would he do?

"The key factor is accountability," says Snowden, adding that creating an oversight system is complex, and the U.S. is off to a good start, but the problem is "overseers aren't interested in oversight." He also calls out Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying to Congress on NSA surveillance.

"We need a watchdog that watches Congress," he says.

12:26 p.m.: Snowden talks about whether mass surveillance efforts have worked so far. "They're not." He points to the Boston bombing as an example. "We're monitoring everyone's communications instead of suspects' communications."

12:23 p.m.: Snowden calls out former NSA directors Keith Alexander and Michael Hayden for harming national security, adding the U.S. needs to act more defensively on security. "It's very interesting to see officials like Keith Alexander talk about damage that's been done."

12:20 p.m.: Snowden says he's not against big businesses such as Facebook and Google collecting data, so long as they do it responsibly. "It's not that you can't collect any data," says Snowden. "You should only collect the data and hold it as long as neccessary for the nature of the business."

12:17 p.m.: Snowden says the key to having more secure communications tool is to integrate security measures that work by default. "It has to be out there. It has to happen automatically. It has to happen seamlessly."

12:14 p.m.: Sogohian talks about better end-to-end encryption, and says a lot of tools are "not very polished." He also says many of the larger companies who make communications tools aren't as secure. "Rational people choose the insecure tools ... because they are easy for people to figure out."

12:11 p.m.: On making mass surveillance more difficult, better end-to-end encryption is key, says Snowden. How can we enforce those protections in a simple, cheap and effective way for users," he says.

12:10 p.m.: Snowden says one of the key problems with mass surveillance is not only about how communications are collected but "how do you interpret them, how do you understand them."

12:09 p.m.: Snowden says governments have created an adversarial Internet, and the way to fix this is with response through new policies and better technology.

Snowden says the development community "can really crack those solutions and make sure we're safe."

"They're setting fire to the future of the Internet, and you guys in the room are the global firefighters," adds Snowden.

12:02 p.m.: Ben Wizner, Snowden's legal counsel, and ACLU's Chris Sogohian are on stage to introduce Snowden, who appear via videoconference with an image of the U.S. Constitution in the background.

11:50 a.m.: For readers not in Austin for SXSW, Snowden's chat is also available via livestream.

Update at 11:38 a.m. ET: We're about 25 minutes away from the start of Snowden's chat and lines are already forming.

But, according to USA TODAY's Jon Swartz, reporting from SXSW, lines for a competing chat with Girls star Lena Dunham are 10 times longer than the the line for Snowden's talk.

ORIGINAL STORY

Snowden, whose disclosures of secret documents detailed NSA surveillance tactics, will chat about how the tech industry has been impacted and what can be done to protect citizens.

Snowden will join the conference via video call from Russia, where he has sought asylum.

At the open of the SXSW festival, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Ks., urged organizers to cancel the talk. "Rewarding Mr. Snowden's behavior in this way encourages the very lawlessness he exhibited," said Pompeo in a letter to SXSW organizers.

USA TODAY will attend the session at SXSW, and will post live updates starting at 12 p.m. ET.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.