We don't have a great clash of civilizations, a clash of ideologies, a clash of alternative models, where governments thought to themselves, if we go too far, if we sort of trample unreasonably on rights, we'll give birth to a political movement which will cost us our credibility, and will possibly cost us our offices, because people will vote for the other team, the other guys.

When people talk about Web 2.0, they mean that when the Internet, the World Wide Web, first became popular, it was one way only.

I'm not a spy for Russia or China or any other country for that matter.

What the NSA really wants is the capability of retrospective investigation. They want to have a perfect record of the last five years of your life, so when you come to their attention, they can know everything about you. I'm not down with that, but [Bill] Binney was trying to create something like that.

The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.

I don't think political reform is likely to succeed. [Senators Tom] Udall and [Ron] Wyden, on the intelligence committee, have been sounding the alarm, but they are a minority.

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.