NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden seeks asylum in Brazil

Former NSA contractor offers to help Brazil fight US government snooping in exchange for permanent residence

Edward Snowden, the man responsible for revealing the extent of government surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA), has offered to aid the Brazilian authorities with an investigation into US snooping within its borders, in exchange for asylum in the South American country.

The Prism whistleblower made the offer in a letter published by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.

"Many Brazilian senators have asked my help with their investigations into suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens. I expressed my willingness to assist, where it is appropriate and legal, but unfortunately the US government has been working very hard to limit my ability to do so," wrote Snowden.

The former NSA contractor is currently in Russia on an amnesty, but official asylum in Brazil would allow him to reveal more about the US government's surveillance activity.

"Until a country grants permanent asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak," he added.

Snowden is said to be impressed by the Brazilian government's willingness to speak out against the US spying programme, which has included the interception of phone calls and emails by world leaders, including Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

Brazil has strong policies on data privacy, meaning the country has been particularly upset by the NSA spying revelations. Brazilan oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, a major customer of SAP, is one of the many victims of NSA communications tapping. As a result, SAP is looking to build data centres in Brazil in the hope that the US authorities cannot gain access to them.

"Brazil has had a very strong policy in recent years for both private and public companies, in how they store and access data securely. It has a long tradition of that, and our industry has been evolving in line with a lot of those government guidelines," SAP managing director of Southern Latin America Diego Dzosan told Computing during SAP's Brazil Innovation Tour in September this year.

"We don't currently have our own data centres in Brazil, so our first step is to work with local partners to give us a short-term solution, building data centres takes some time, so you need immediate capacity, and we will eventually own our own data centres," he added.