Note to all Internet users: Trust no one

Customers should assume that American multinational telecom companies are providing the U.S. government access to their personal data, according to whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In an interview with Der Spiegel conducted before he went public about the NSA's surveillance programs, the former NSA contractor also said that punishing companies who collaborate with the agency should be "the highest priority of all computer users who believe in the freedom of thought." In the interview, Snowden also said the NSA and Israel co-wrote the Stuxnet worm, which knocked out Iran's nuclear program in 2011, and he asserted that U.S. allies like Britain are engaging in surveillance programs similar in scope to those of the United States.