Ex-Guardian journalist Greenwald testifies on NSA spying before EU parliament. LIVE UPDATES

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Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist known for publishing Edward Snowden’s leaks, is testifying before the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs via video connection, contributing to an inquiry into the NSA’s surveillance on EU citizens.

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  Free press: it is hard to overstate how important it was for me to speek out on surveillance. But UK gov't threatens journalists who cover surveillance prog - Greenwald
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Hollande tells Obama of 'deep disapproval' of US spying on French citizens -Full Update

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French President Francois Hollande condemned US spying on French citizens in a call with President Barack Obama on Monday, as a row escalated over US eavesdropping on millions of French phone calls. Hollande's office said in a statement that he had expressed "deep disapproval of these practices, which are unacceptable between friends and allies because they infringe on the privacy of French citizens."

Hollande "asked that all explanations be provided, as well as all information that could be at the disposal of former NSA consultant Edward Snowden."

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Big Microsoft Spying On you?

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Microsoft cooperated with the US intelligence services so they could access emails, including Hotmail, and listen in on Skype video calls, the Guardian’s series of reports claims. The paper has cited a number of documents, it said to have obtained from Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker who is still trapped at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

The secret reports cite the NSA saying “this new capability will result in a much more timely collection response” and that its “success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established.”

Microsoft was reportedly allowing agents to circumvent its own encryption system to spy on email and chats.

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Dotcom Warns New Zealand Against Illegal Spying

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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom flew into Wellington on Wednesday (July 3) in his private helicopter to attend New Zealand parliament’s intelligence and security committee hearing chaired by Prime Minister John Key.

It placed Dotcom face-to-face with the leader for the first time since his arrest during a dramatic raid on Dotcom’s home outside Auckland in January 2012.

As ongoing revelations of U.S. spying shed more light on a secretive, Washington-led intelligence-sharing alliance, the victim of illegal spying by member nation New Zealand warned against following the United States into “the dark ages of spying”.