Get rid of Dropbox, avoid Facebook and Google: Edward Snowden's privacy tips

“We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We’re subjects, and we have rulers," points out whistle blower Edward Snowden. In a recent interview with The New Yorker magazine, he hit out at services like Dropbox and several others that according to him are “hostile to privacy.” He also urges netizens to avoid using Google (Although, he used Google+ Hangouts during the interview) and Facebook. “We’re talking about encryption. We’re talking about dropping programs that are hostile to privacy. For example, Dropbox? Get rid of Dropbox, it doesn’t support encryption, it doesn’t protect your private files. And use competitors like SpiderOak, that do the same exact service but they protect the content of what you’re sharing,” Snowden said. When asked about reforming government policies, he said, many people let go this right by default by claiming they have nothing to hide. “When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights – you don’t have to justify why you need freedom of speech," he adds. Though Facebook and Google have improved security, he believes they still remain dangerous services and must be avoided. Snowden further suggests that one should stop sending unencrypted text messages and use services like RedPhone and Silent Circle instead. Earlier this year, Silent Circle and Geeksphone launched their anti-NSA smartphone, Blackphone , at MWC 2014. Blackphone is a privacy-oriented smartphone designed to not only make secure phone calls and send/receive data, but the device will also ensure that the content stored on the phone is secure from snooping. Finally, talking about returning to America, Snowden is convinced that he won’t be able to present his case in an open trial like whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Chelsea Manning. He emphasised on how he has been negotiating with the US government for an open trial that they have been declining again and again. Take a look at the complete interview below: