VIDEO: Edward Snowden: When You Monitor Everyone, You Understand Nothing — and That Has to Change

In an exclusive one-hour interview with The Guardian, the NSA whistleblower weighs in on the recent (somewhat incomplete) shift in Congress toward bulk data collection, warning, “This is only the bare beginning of reform … bad laws are not forever and if we work together, we can change them.” He adds that phone data collection was only one of many surveillance programs that need to be addressed.

Though the interview was conducted after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the USA Freedom Act, the Senate had not yet voted on the bill. With regard to the Senate vote, Snowden said that the legislative body had two options: “They can either lose their authority entirely or they can accept at least some reforms.”

Given Saturday’s events, it seems the Senate opted for the former rather than the latter.

To see more clips and read more about the Guardian interview, click here.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata