Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden appeared via webcast at Austin's SXSW conference on Monday, and called on the tech community to create secure tools that will prevent mass surveillance by agencies like the National Security Agency.

"The people who are in the room in Austin, they're the folks who can really fix things, who can enforce our rights through technical standards" when Congress is unable or unwilling to do so, Snowden said.

"The NSA, the global mass surveillance that's occurring in all these countries ... they're setting fire to the future of the Internet," Snowden charged. "The people who are in this room right now, you guys are all the fire fighters and we need you to help us fix this."

Snowden turned over a number of classified documents to journalists last year before fleeing to Hong Kong and later, Russia. He resides there now, and appeared remotely at SXSW today via seven proxies in front of a green screen that displayed the Constitution. The information he provided brought to light a number of NSA surveillance programs, as well as mass requests for data from popular tech companies.

Snowden argued that "there's a policy response that needs to occur." While President Obama has pledged to make changes to surveillance programs - particularly as it relates to phone data metadata collection - Congress is divided on the issue. Snowden supporters generally back the USA FREEDOM Act from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, but are critical of a bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which detractors say will just bolster existing programs.

As a result, Snowden backed "a technical response," from "thinkers" and developers who "can really craft those solutions and make sure we're safe."

Ideally, that would include end-to-end encryption, Snowden said. But he acknowledged that that can be complicated, in part because free email services like Gmail make their money by email scanning that serves up targeted ads. Google started encrypting Gmail by default in 2010, but it's encryption in pieces, so to speak, rather than end-to-end.

ACLU principal technologist Christopher Soghoian, who also appeared on today's panel, agreed that truly secure solutions are often too complicated for the average tech user. "Tools that are designed with security as the first goal [are] made by geeks, for geeks," he said.

As a result, "a lot of our work goes into pressuring" major services like Facebook, Google, and Skype to secure their products, Soghoian said. That doesn't mean that small developers can't play a role, he said. "What I want is for the next WhatsApp or Twitter to use end-to-end encryption."

Snowden described encryption as "protection for the dark arts of the digital realm." He called on the grad students of today and tomorrow to actively research and improve cryptography on the academic level to inform the technology of tomorrow.

Ultimately, Soghoian said truly secure solutions will not be free. He speculated that people would likely be willing to pay $5 per month for a user-friendly, truly secure solution.

Questions at the event were fielded via Twitter and were largely supportive of Snowden's efforts. Tim Berners-Lee, known as the father of the Internet, even wrote in to say that Snowden's actions were "profoundly in the public interest."

But not everyone is a fan. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, asked SXSW organizers to cancel the Snowden event, arguing that Snowden's appearance would "stamp the imprimatur of your fine organization on a man who ill deserves such accolades." Pompeo's request was referenced during today's event, but was obviously not honored.

Moderator Ben Wizner asked Snowden if he regretted turning over the documents, but he said no. "Would I do this again? Absolutely yes," he said. "Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to know."

For more, check out The 10 Most Disturbing Snowden Revelations, as well as all the news from SXSW and the slideshow above.

Also watch PCMag Live in the video below, which discusses Snowden's SXSW appearance.

UPDATE: Watch Snowden's full appearance in the video above.