He said the idea was to set up a common platform to "minimize risks of being spied on" and added the project was an outgrowth of the disclosures by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on U.S. spying worldwide. 

  "We have decided to begin to work on new Internet communication systems of our countries, of our societies, to avoid continuing being the object and prey of illegal spying that U.S. spying entities have developed against us," Patino said in an interview with Reuters at Ecuador's mission to the United Nations in New York City.