Permanent Record

Paperback, 352 pages

Published Sept. 1, 2020 by Picador.

ISBN:
978-1-250-77290-9
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4 stars (100 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 …

12 editions

Serious gumption

3 stars

I also grew up in a government town in the early days of home computers & the internet. Perhaps if I had stumbled across hacking I'd have ended up in a similar role to him, though I doubt I'd have his gumption to expose the gross overreach of the security services. Their capability was (and remains) alarming.

Reading time 9 days, 37 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm

Muy interesante

4 stars

Content warning Posible Spoiler

Review of 'Permanent record' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It's very strange reading the biography of someone who's early life feels so similar to your own, that if you'd been born in a different place you might have faced the same decisions and moral quandaries. It raises the question: would I, could I have done the same thing? Or worse: should I?

Snowden's story is well known, but seeing the arc of his life laid out in his own words brings home the reality of it. He does a great job of showing how he ended up in the position he did, explaining the technology and culture of the IC as he goes along which helps provide context for the documents he eventually exposes. At the heart of it all is ultimately a love story between two millennial poster children.

An essential read for anyone who works in technology infrastructure or wants a relatable glimpse at the reality of …

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'

5 stars

Edward Snowden is often depicted as a genius. After reading this book, I don't believe that to be true.
Geniuses are "above human beings", whereas Snowden depicts himself as being extra-human. And a smart one on top of that.

Having grown up at the same time as him, and followed a career in technology as well, this biography talked even more to me, as I could really identity to him. What he says is entirely true, extremely well written very moving.

Review of 'Permanent record' on 'LibraryThing'

No rating

It’s curious that we’ve become so reconciled with the massive amount of state secrets we learned about when Edward Snowden worked with journalists to expose its vast extent and power in 2013. Since then, he’s lived in exile almost as long as he worked for the US intelligence services, helping to build a system that would capture, store, and make searchable the digital traces of communications of the entire world, an all-encompassing shift from targeted to mass surveillance. Yet we’ve become somehow used to the idea, defensively forgetting that nearly everything we do is not forgotten.returnreturnSnowden’s memoir, Permanent Record, doesn’t reveal any state secrets he hasn't already selectively shared with the world. It doesn’t tell us anything about how he got those secrets out that hasn’t already been covered in Laura Poitras’s film, Citizenfour. It’s more personal and reflective. It explains how he became entranced by technology and the internet, …

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!

Review of 'Permanent record' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Given his IT background I was surprised at how articulate and how well written his account was. The flow is incredibly smooth, the story gripping and interesting. I naturally finished it in one sitting, I couldn’t look away. Obviously an extremely intelligent, principled man who was unashamed to take an objective look at his past. He left out none of the embarrassing details, even leaving in his porn preferences at a younger age. He gave clear explanation for non-techie readers, but none of it was boring for the technically inclined either. This is an essential book for any citizen of America, or any other nation exhibiting totalitarian tendencies.

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