At the fourth hearing of the Civil Liberties Committee inquiry into U.S. and EU countries surveillance of EU citizens, MEPs discussed the possibility of suspending EU-U.S. trade talks, creating international standards and the need for parliamentary oversight of surveillance activities. In a statement read aloud, whistleblower Edward Snowden said “the surveillance of whole populations … threatens to be the greatest human rights challenge of our time.” A former Microsoft executive has said he no longer carries a cellphone and only uses open-source software if he can check the underlying code. Meanwhile, at an event this week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly suggested the Fourth Amendment protects personal items, "not privacy, per se.” Meanwhile, a former NSA contractor and graphic designer has created four fonts that he claims cannot be analyzed by systems used to monitor online communications.
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