One of the world’s leading campaigners for internet freedom says the US Government pledge to back off on rampant digital spying is a win for whistleblowers and private citizens.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says plans to limit the United States government's wide-spread surveillance programs are a sort of victory for the now-fugitive man responsible for exposing it.

In an attempt to regain some of the massively damaged trust of US and international citizens, US President Barack Obama announced late last week that steps would be taken to improve the oversight of surveillance programs. Those programs include PRISM, a multi-national (including Australia) effort to mine telecommunications information and apply advanced algorithms to build entire profiles of information from internet records. PRISM was exposed largely due to leaks from Edward Snowden, a one-time contractor with the US National Security Agency who has now fled the country and been granted asylum in Russia as a result of the revelation.

Now senior officials in the United States say the president will be calling on Congress to rein in the National Security Agency's (NSA) collection of internet and phone data. There has been no further word on how that will be achieved, or how the government intends to reveal that it has changed it methods without giving away more of its own secrets.

Internet freedom advocate and enemy of the United States, Julian Assange says: “As Snowden has stated, his biggest concern was if he blew the whistle and change did not occur. Well reforms are taking shape, and for that, the president and people of the United States and around the world owe Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude... the simple fact is that without Snowden's disclosures, no-one would know about the programs and no reforms could take place.”

Mr Assange remains holed-up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London fearing extradition to America for publishing classified US documents online, he has also recently stated his confidence in his run for a seat on the Australian senate.