Tim Berners-Lee wins computer award, supports cyberspace privacy

This video from India says about itself:

14 March 2014

Inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, said that US whistleblower Edward Snowden must be protected.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, has received the prestigious Turing Award. The award is considered the Nobel Prize of computer science. …

Berners-Lee calls receiving the prize a great honour in an interview with The Guardian. “It is fantastic to receive this award and thus get on a list of illustrious scientists.” The computer scientist is currently working at MIT, the university of technology in Boston.

Criticizing governments

He also remains committed to maintaining the open nature of the Internet and privacy of Internet users. In The Guardian he calls the reversal of a rule in the US that prohibits Internet service providers to sell customers’ surfing behaviour disgusting.

“Privacy is something that both Democrats and Republicans should find important. So I am very shocked that the Republican Party has managed to suggest that it should be trashed; if anyone follows up on this direction, there will be a massive pushback – and there must be a massive pushback!.”

In an interview with the BBC, the inventor of the worldwide web also criticized the British authorities. They want to weaken the encryption of chat services in the light of the attack in London two weeks ago. He warns that this can have major consequences, since not only governments but also malicious persons would then get access.