Edward Snowden says NSA spying worse than Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' 25 Dec 2013 Edward Snowden says truth is scarier than fiction when it comes to Big Brother. The 30-year-old who revealed the NSA's massive spying programs claims the widespread surveillance is far beyond the ominous thought police of author George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984." "The types of collection in the book -- microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us -- are nothing compared to what we have available today," Snowden said during "The Alternative Christmas Message," broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4.