http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iuLLkWefxs

YouTube: Channel 4/AssociatedPress

FUGITIVE WHISTLEBLOWER EDWARD Snowden delivered Channel 4′s Alternative Christmas Message yesterday afternoon.

The message, thought to be recorded in Moscow where has gained asylum, unsurprisingly focused on the issue of privacy with the computer analyst explaining why “privacy matters.”

“Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be,” he said.

Snowden exposed the US National Security Agency’s vast surveillance and phone and internet data collection methods six months ago, gaining worldwide notoriety before seeking asylum in Russia.

“Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information,” he said in yesterday’s message.

“The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us are nothing compared to what we have available today,” he says.

“We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.

It was the 20th year of Channel 4′s alternative message which is seen as a counter to the more traditional annual message from Queen Elizabeth which was broadcast at 3pm on BBC 1 yesterday.

Here’s a taster of what the monarch had to say:

YouTube: AssociatedPress

Read: Edward Snowden to deliver Channel 4′s Alternative Christmas Message