National Security Agency men share nude pictures of strangers: Edward Snowden

Moscow: Employees within America’s National Security Agency, consider nude photos of strangers as a “fringe benefit”, former contractor Edward Snowden has claimed. The whistle-blower said employees of the security agency pass around photos of individuals and their intimate moments and often involve themselves in discussions around acquired material.

He has now urged doctors, lawyers and journalists to take extra care while safeguarding information. The claims were made by Snowden during an interview with The Guardian in Moscow.

“You’ve got young enlisted guys, 18 to 22 years old,” explains Snowden. “They’ve suddenly been thrust into a position of extraordinary responsibility where they now have access to all of your private records. So what do they do? They turn around in their chair and show their co-worker and their co-worker says: ‘Oh hey, that’s great. Send that to Bill down the way.’

And then Bill sends it to George, George sends it to Tom and sooner or later this person’s whole life has been seen by other people.” Snowden also claims that he has personally witnessed “numerous instances” of this happening.

“These are seen as the fringe benefits of surveillance positions,” he says. The NSA has slammed Snowden’s claims and says such behaviour will “not be tolerated”.