Permanent Record
Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. more
339 pages, Hardcover
First published Metropolitan Books
4.3
Rating
51491
Ratings
4821
Reviews
Edward Snowden
202 books 1710 followers
Edward Joseph Snowden is an American whistleblower who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 when he was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee and subcontractor. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments, and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.Community reviews
Edward Snowden has no new bombshells in this book, but "Permanent Record" is still full of surprises in some ways. Far from the low-level IT drone depicted in most early press accounts, and even further from the naive double agent trashed by his critics, the narrator of this book is a thoughtful, painfully self-aware intelligence professional who found himself forced to confront and expose the reality of mass surveillance -- and the immense powers of coercion it gave to authorities who, thanks to technology he helped create, are now able to strip the personal privacy of anyone connected to the Internet. It is scary how many of his metaphors and hyperbolic examples are actually happening today to a certain extent. You won't actually learn much about Snowden's disclosures, but he offers a very readable memoir about growing up with the Internet, a detailed rationale for his actions, and a look at how government surveillance has evolved since his disclosures. I actually appreciated that he spends a lot of time talking about his childhood, and laying the foundation that he would later build upon in the following chapters. more
In a book of 29 chapters, you can safely skip the first 19. Chapter 20, where he gives a talk on China and when the hypocrisy becomes too much for him to cope with, is where this book starts. Up until then it is a long and somewhat boring journey. After this point, the book springs to life and is over too soon. Lately I feel like I have become Australia’s chief spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party – so, I want to start by saying that I’m actually not all that fond of the CCP. more
“I was resolved to bring to light a single, all-encompassing fact: that my government had developed and deployed a global system of mass surveillance without the knowledge or consent of its citizenry. ” ~Edward Snowden I began reading this book with a decent amount of skepticism. Is Edward Snowden a hero or a criminal. Could I believe him. I was bothered by the fact that he lives in Russia; is he a hero or a traitor. more
Edward Sowden is the name of a person who redefined the word privacy. He revealed government programs that collected people's private data. "The government should be afraid of the people, the people shouldn't be afraid of the government. " This book tells us why Snowden became a whistleblower and why he went into exile. If you are someone who values privacy, this is a book you should never miss. more
This is so weird. I did not rate this book, but I see that "I" gave it 2-stars on August 27. It seriously looks like my account was hacked in order to give a book 2 stars. Who does that. . more
I am not judging the person - Snowden is a person who changed the very way we used to think. He introduced to the world the dirty secrets that we could have never known otherwise. However, I am just sharing my thoughts about his book. Divided into three parts, the book narrates Snowden's story to the readers. He has been direct and amusing at times and symbolic as well, less frequently, nevertheless. more
This is a highly-readable and thoroughly fascinating account of Snowden as a child, his ethical foundations, computer ethos, and his original desire always do the right thing. For any of you who don't know his name, you'll find a thousand accounts that turn him into a hero and a thousand that turn him into a traitor. I totally recommend reading his own words. He was always careful and thoughtful and did what he did for what he thought was the very best of reasons. By any stretch of reality, he simply gave true accounts, backed up with real data, to the most responsible and courageous reporters he could find. more
I did not intend on writing this review on 9/11, which I guess could be considered appropriate or inappropriate depending on your perspective. I actually finished this book yesterday for what it’s worth. I was a child in September, 2001, so I don’t remember specific rollbacks in privacy; I didn’t have any real privacy to speak of at that point. But I do remember the way the adults around me changed. Three months after having to stand up and say the pledge of allegiance again, in the middle of the school day on a random Tuesday, my school’s choir sang a song entitled “American Tears” about heroes and firefighters and pilgrims (. more
Popsugar challenge 2020 - A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but its unrelated to it Mind blown. Utterly mind blown. I'm typing out a book review on the world wide web but I'm thinking I never want to go online or touch a smartphone again. Mind blown. We know they know but I never really understood the level to which they knew. more
I think it's been fairly well established by now where my views on Edward Snowden fall in the traitor vs. hero debate, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I was very excited to read his story as told in his own words. Since following his disclosures back in 2013, I have unabashedly admired what he has done and what he stands for, as well as the courage required by his actions. Reading this book has, if anything, strengthened my impression of him as a sympathetic and relatable person as well as an admirable one (part of which may have something to do with the fact that, being only a few years younger than him and running in similar circles of anime- and computer-loving outsiders in my youth, I discovered a lot of myself and my friends in his experiences in childhood and teenage years, right down to spending lots of weekends watching anime with people from my Japanese class where he would have fit right in). He doesn't shy away from criticism of both himself and others in this account, and is forthright in discussing his own regrets, the slow disillusionment he experienced during his years in the intelligence community, his uncertainties and doubts about what, if anything, he could do about it, how he came to the decision to become a whistleblower, and the results of that decision. more
This Review ✍️ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷 Support me ☕ “Ultimately, saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. ” I came upon this book by chance and then I checked out the synopsis on GR and it sounded super intriguing. It is also very rare to find a book like this with such a high average rating, this currently has 36K ratings and an average rating of 4. 3 and I can still say it deserves more recognition. Among all the non-fiction books I read, I only gave 5 stars to another one which is “When Breath Becomes Air”. more
LE 22/11: just came across this podcast, thanks to a friend of mine, and it's excellent: https://www. reddit. com/r/JoeRogan/com. They own your every secret, your life is in their filesThe grains of your every waking second sifted through and scrutinizedThey know your every right. They know your every wrongEach put in their due compartment - sins where sins belongThey know you. more
While I was reading this, my usually well-informed husband said "Isn't he the traitor involved with Assange who lives in Russia". Snowden did not release the classified NSA documents to WikiLeaks but rather three reputable journalists - but I think the fact that he ended up living in Moscow (not by his choice) is confusing. I was skeptical myself. I found the book excellent, eye opening and educational. I believe Snowden's earnest attempt to educate us and protect our privacy is heroic. more
Like most people, to me the name Edward Snowden is synonymous with the term whistleblower. But if I’d been asked to explain exactly what he blew the whistle on I’d have struggled to provide a cogent answer. So, time to fill a gap in my knowledge base. In this book, Snowden tells the story of his life up to and including the point in time he leaked thousands of highly classified documents and had found himself subsequently ‘beached’ in Russia, whilst en route to Ecuador. His American passport had been cancelled. more
A very spooky, real-life Halloween read. 🤯👻🎃"The freedom of a country can only be measured by its respect for the rights of its citizens . Ultimately, saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. ". more
Like many others I had read Glenn Greenwald's articles regarding Edward Snowden, the CIA analyst and whistle-blower. I did my own research regarding the plight of whistle blowers in the US and the content that Snowden allegedly released. To say that I was thrilled to read Permanent Record by Snowden is an understatement. His story in his own words. It was everything I anticipated. more
"I hadn't signed up for any of this. I had just wanted to screw around with computers and maybe do some good for my country along the way. "No one wants to bear the weight of an ugly truth that must be told at great personal sacrifice. Snowden's "desperate hope that somebody else, somewhere else, would figure it out on their own" is heartbreaking to read, as you imagine yourself in his shoes. This novel definitely falls into the glad-I-read-it-but-now-my-stomach-really-hurts category. more
This is a fascinating book. Late October 2019: Recode Decode podcast interview with Edward Snowden (thanks to Michael Perkins for the heads up https://www. goodreads. com/author/show. )https://podcasts. more
So fascinating to hear Snowden's story. I feel like I was sympathetic to him from the beginning of this whole story and I followed enough of it to know the major plot points. My impression of him as an earnest person trying to do the right thing remains intact after reading this book. But it does make me wonder if his idealism about the internet wasn't the reason he was so disillusioned. I guess putting myself in his position, I probably wouldn't have at all been surprised by the NSA's actions. more
So well written and absolutely riveting. more
Is Snowden a hero or a villain. It’s a simple question but there’s a helluva lot to unpack if one is going to answer the question fairly. Broadly, should anyone make decisions of this import who is just a cog in the machine. Well that’s goes to one of the broadest questions of the sanctity of an individual in a society. Specifically, was Snowden right about govt abuses. more
traitor or patriotic whistleblower. In June 2013, Edward Snowden burst onto the global stage by publicly asserting that the US government was essentially spying on all Americans without their knowledge and thus without their consent. The US government launched an international manhunt for the National Security Agency (NSA) contractor they called a "traitor. " Snowden was en route to Ecuador on a multi-leg itinerary when he was run to ground in the Moscow airport. He was effectively grounded when the US State Department revoked his American passport. more
I believe, just as those journalists believe, that a government may keep some information concealed. Even the most transparent democracy in the world may be allowed to classify, for example, the identity of its undercover agents and the movements of its troops in the field. This book includes no such secrets. To give an account of my life while protecting the privacy of my loved ones and not exposing legitimate government secrets is no simple task, but it is my task. Between those two responsibilities, that is where to find me. more
«در نظام استبدادی، حقوق فردی از دامان حکومت برمیخیزد و به مردم اعطا میشود اما در حکومت آزاد، حقوق برآمده از دل خود مردم است و به حکومت اعطا میشود. در شکل اول، مردم همه رعیت هستند وتنها مالک اندک چیزها و در سایه حقوقی که دولت به آنها میدهد اجازه تحصیل، کار و حتی دعا کردن دارند. اما در شکل دوم، مردم همه شهروند هستند و پذیرفتهاند که دولتی کارهایشان را بگذراند و هر از گاهی هم حق عوض کردن آن را دارند و بر پایه قوانین اساسی این کار را انجام میدهند. همین تمایز بین دولتهای آزاد و استبدادی است که به نظر من بدل به بزرگترین بحران زمانه شده و و اصلا چیزی نیست که فقط در خاورمیانه رخ بدهد. ما هم در دل حکومتهای این سوی مغرب زمین و در ممالک مسیحی به همین بلا گرفتاریم. more
Never imagined I’d be so spellbound by this book. Fascinating. In his memoir, Edward Snowden first explains how revealing his life story and intimate details of his life is a difficult exercise for him. Especially for someone who has worked in the spying community, where self-effacement is the rule of the game, and appearing as bland and unmemorable as possible are essential tools one must adopt and project at all times to evade detection. He explains that telling his life story, his family history, his experiences growing up are intrinsic to understanding his motivations for the actions he took in 2013, when he took on the role of whistleblower. more
People are going to love this book -- it's a tantalizing look behind the curtain in exchange for accepting Snowden's personable, but self-serving, white-washed, martyr drama. Snowden reportedly stole over a million classified documents, of which an unknown percent have been distributed to an unknown number of parties, and about 10,000 have been publicly published. He claims in the book that he can no longer reconstruct the documents, that he didn't give any to the Russians, and that he's a whistle blower, a patriot. Yet, only a tiny fraction of the documents that have been publicly released to date could qualify as legitimate whistle blowing, with the dissemination of the vast majority of the documents having no other purpose than to attempt to erode the US government's ability to conduct foreign intelligence collection. For the foreseeable future, Snowden will be the poster child for anti-surveillance. more
Snowden is a controversial figure, if ever there was one. There's who considers him a traitor, who a hero, with very little middle ground. Despite that, there's something undeniable about him: he chose to throw away a reasonably comfortable life for something he believed in. It was a completely selfless reason, made without any personal agendas whatsoever. That is something that I personally respect and admire. more
We live in an age in which it seems unthinkable to exist without technology. It's rare that we'll meet someone without a phone, a laptop or other devices connected to the internet. We've reached a stage in our civilisation where we can't be quite sure anymore who owns whom. "When your equipment works, you'll work, but when your equipment breaks down you'll break down, too. Your possessions would possess you. more