Snowden warns of Web giants’ ‘irresistible power’

Snowden recognised that public awareness is growing over the abuses he has denounced, and he lauded efforts to protect privacy, especially in Europe, but told the gathering of some 70,000 that 'the problem is not data protection, it’s data collection'. — AP

LISBON: Technology has given Internet giants “irresistible power” when they work in concert with governments, whistleblower Ed Snowden told the Web Summit that opened in Lisbon on Nov 4.

“When we see government and corporations working in concert... they become the left and right hands of the same body. What we see is the concentration of power,” he told the European celebration of startups and new technologies gathering high-tech entrepreneurs and investors.