11.01am GMT

Welcome to our hub for all Edward Snowden, NSA and GCHQ-related developments around the world. As arguments rage over how much of our day to day life should be monitored in the name of security, we'll be tracking the growing global debate about privacy in the digital age. We'd like to know what you think about the whole NSA story, what you're worried about – and any new areas you'd like to read more about.

Good morning. Here are the headlines:

• In Britain, the president of the Liberal Democrats has said he will put to the party’s spring conference a package of measures to democratise and tighten up the scrutiny of the security services. Tim Farron’s measures would include bringing oversight of intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ under the ambit of a “normal” select committee, whose members were elected by their fellow MPs, rather than the current intelligence and security committee, whose members are chosen by MPs from a list picked by the prime minister. Farron also wants measures to introduce judicial oversight of intercept warrants. The Lib Dem party conference does make party policy, but if - as now - the party is in coalition government it does not make coalition policy.

• In a sign of the jostling in parliament over the future oversight of the security services, the home affairs select committee, an elected committee of MPs, said it would take extra time to cross-examine the home secretary, Theresa May, next week after she rejected its request to cross-examine the head of MI5, Andrew Parker, as Patrick Wintour reports. The prime minister also rejected the committee's request to cross-examine his national security adviser, Kim Darroch.

Kat Craig of human rights charity Reprieve commented:

This is a scandalous attempt by the government to insulate itself and the security services from anything even approaching genuine accountability. Theresa May’s claim that the intelligence and security committee is providing real “oversight” would be laughable were it not so depressing. This is a committee which has missed every scandal from UK complicity in rendition and torture to the more recent revelations on excessive surveillance. The fact that we more often hear the chair of the ISC acting as a spokesman for the security services than actually holding them to account should have made its total inadequacy as a watchdog clear long ago. Theresa May’s decision is an assault on the fundamental British principles of parliamentary democracy – she must reverse it without delay.

• Senior US officials, fighting to forestall a push to end the bulk collection of Americans' phone data, told a Senate panel they would be "failing" the country if the controversial surveillance practice ceased, and suggested that a congressional move to stop it would not be the final word on the matter, reports Spencer Ackerman in Washington. NSA director Keith Alexander said he did not know how to detect future domestic terrorist attacks without swooping up the phone records of every American. You can read a live blog of that Senate session here.

• The European Union has failed to stand up for whistleblower Edward Snowden or properly defend newspapers that have written articles about the scale of mass state surveillance, according to freedom of expression group Index on Censorship.

Mike Harris, the organisation's head of advocacy, said:

No EU member state defended Edward Snowden as a whistleblower. The EU failed to issue a strong collective statement against mass surveillance, nor have unjust laws such as criminal defamation or national insult laws prevalent across the continent been repealed.

And he compared Britain to Hungary, whose government has been criticised for a clampdown on the media, because of the UK’s attitude to the Guardian’s Snowden stories:

Media freedom in particular has come under attack – from the recent seizure of the Guardian's computers, through to the Hungarian government's clampdown on their media – all in states that have signed up to strong human rights commitments. While the EU likes to talk about the importance of 'European values', it is failing to practice what it preaches.

Read the Index report here.

• In Australia a Senate committee will scrutinise internet and phone surveillance by Australia’s security agencies after Labor backed an inquiry proposed by the Greens, as Lenore Taylor reports. Greens senator Scott Ludlam said a review of the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act had “never been more urgent” given recent revelations by Edward Snowden about the extent of surveillance and the fact that Australia’s act was written in the “pre-computer age”. The inquiry was opposed by the government.

• In France, intelligence and government officials will be able to spy on internet users in real time and without authorisation, under a law passed on Wednesday. This comes just weeks after the government expressed outrage at revelations that the NSA had been intercepting phone calls there.

• Blowing the whistle on powerful factions is not a fun thing to do, but it is the last avenue for truth, balanced debate and democracy, seven former whistleblowers write.

I'll have live coverage of all developments as they happen.