Encrypting the Internet is the most realistic solution to mass surveillance, according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In a talk at the event FutureFest, Snowden argued that encryption was the only was to be sure that communications were not being intercepted by criminals, government agencies or companies, as legal frameworks could be ignored.

His proposal is covered as part of an extensive article on his talk in the latest issue of Factor magazine, which is free to read online from today. In it, Snowden argues that the purpose of mass surveillance is spying, not terrorism-prevention, and that governments need to be more open about its true purpose.

Although he said he was just a “mechanism of disclosure”, he suggested encryption would be the only way to be sure that mass surveillance was not taking place.

“Fundamentally, changes to the fabric of the Internet, our methods of communication, can enforce our rights, they can enforce our liberties, our values, on governments,” he said.

Snowden expressed concern about the decline in power citizens have over their communications, and highlighted how few of us are aware of how this has changed.

“We’re losing leverage. Governments are increasingly gaining more power and we are increasingly losing our ability to control that power and even to be aware of that power,” he said.

He proposed that a radical overhaul of the Internet could be undertaken with the help of academics and infrastructure providers, to ensure that online communications were truly secure.

“By leaning on companies, by leaning on infrastructure providers, by leaning on researchers, graduate students, postdocs, even undergrads to look at the challenges of having untrusted Internet, we can restructure that communications fabric in a way that’s encrypted,” he explained.

“And by encrypted I mean the only people who can read and understand the communications across those wires are the people at the two distant ends. This is called end-to-end encryption, and what we’re doing there is making it much more difficult to perform mass surveillance.”

While there are attempts to roll back mass surveillance practices, with a number of recent legal cases deeming them illegal, Snowden expressed scepticism about the ability to fully put a stop to mass surveillance with the law alone.

“I think it is more likely than not that the technical side of the argument will come in, because it’s much easier, I think, to protect communications rather than it is to enforce legislation in every country in the world,” said Snowden.

Full coverage of Edward Snowden’s talk can be read in Factor magazine issue 12, which also considers what humanity would be like if scientists succeeded in their mission to end ageing.