Edward Snowden on Privacy: Facebook And Google Are 'Dangerous Services'

It may be wise to take online privacy tips from Edward Snowden, the former system administrator for the CIA who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency last year.

Snowden, now considered a "whistleblower" causing mass debates regarding American's national security and information privacy. He is now telling the public that if you care about your privacy, it's wise to stay away from the popular Web services Dropbox, Facebook and Google.

During a New Yorker Festival, the former counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency was asked questions during an interview on what measures one could take to stay as private as possible online.

"We're talking about encryption. We're talking about dropping programs that are hostile to privacy," he told the interviewer via video. "For example, Dropbox? Get rid of Dropbox, it doesn't support encryption, it doesn't protect your private files. And use competitors like SpiderOak that do the same exact service but they protect the content of what you're sharing."

A free service, Dropbox lets consumers bring photos, documents and videos into one space and share them, and that's not the only security service we should look out for. Snowden also said that Google and Facebook are "dangerous services." He also added that sending unencrypted text messages is not smart, so instead use RedPhone and Silent Circle, both ways to ensure private communications are secure.

As for questions about him returning to the U.S. for a trial, he said, "I've told the government again and again in negotiations, you know, that if they're prepared to offer an open trial, a fair trial in the same way that Dan Ellsberg got, and I'm allowed to make my case to the jury, I would love to do so. But to this point they've declined."

At the height of Snowden releasing classified documents to several media outlets revealing global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA, he fled from Hawaii to Hong Kong and, on June 14, the United States charged Snowden with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property, punishable to up to 30 years in prison.