Permanent Record

320 pages

English language

Published April 7, 2020 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:
9781529035698

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (55 reviews)

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. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.

Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent …

10 editions

Review of 'Permanent Record' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

We all heard about Snowden, but did you ever realise what he actually did, what he sacrificed for what he thought was right? How he came to be the man that made those choices.

Permanent Record is a super interesting book about a normal guy who became super interesting.

It also shows how deep the rabbit hole is, and how important your (online) privacy is.

I consider this book a must read for everybody living in this day and age.

“The government should be afraid of the people, the people shouldn't be afraid of the government.”
― Edward Snowden, Permanent Record

Review of 'Permanent record' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

My first dystopian horror book.

Permanent Record has a few different stories within the story:

Early Life: You can skip this. Aside from growing up in the Intelligence Community region in Maryland, Snowden had a very average childhood and explains it in-depth for 7 chapters. You can start on chapter 8 (which begins with 9/11) and miss nothing important. It would have been great if Snowden used those pages to share his thoughts on any current tech or surveillance: cryptocurrency, biometrics like gait recognition and facial recognition, keystroke logging, VPN/VPS/VPC, cookies, blockchain, anything really.

Intelligence Community Operations: The differences between CIA and NSA knowledge, the evolution of mass surveillance, casual privacy violations and public doxing, how agencies negotiate higher salaries for employees and contractors at the taxpayer's expense, etc.

Route to Whistleblowing: Snowden’s different jobs within the Intelligence Community, his assignments and growing unease, preparations for leaking, and his life …

Review of 'Permanent Record' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Un témoignage passionnant du lanceur d’alerte Edward Snowden, qui a révélé au monde entier le programme illégal et anticonstitutionnel de surveillance de masse de la NSA cautionné par le gouvernement américain.

Les premiers chapitres m’ont fait penser à Aaron Schwartz, avec cette passion pour l’informatique et cette découverte enthousiasmante de l’Internet des années 1990, quand cet outil laissait espérer une utopie technologique au service du savoir et du partage.

La suite est évidemment plus sombre, avec cette plongée dans les coulisses de la CIA et de la NSA et leurs contingents de sous-traitants, faisant du renseignement américain un terrain de jeu géant et une poule aux œufs d’or pour des compagnies privées.

L’exil d’Edward Snowden à Hong Kong puis à Moscou, après avoir révélé au public les agissements de la NSA et du gouvernement américain, clôture ce récit qui serait incroyable et semblerait tiré d’un roman d’espionnage si nous ne …

Review of 'Permanent Record' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Bra om man vill förstå hans drivkrafter och få hans berättelse om hur det gick till. Knepigast i berättelsen är vad FBI utsatte hans flickvän för. Det är som att dessa myndigheter har friheten att trakassera folk och göra lite vad de känner för utan att det får konsekvenser.
Hoppas inte Sverige fortsätter på samma bana!

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Subjects

  • Snowden, edward j., 1983-
  • Government information
  • Whistle blowing

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