Permanent Record: A Memoir of a Reluctant Whistleblower

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The Sunday Times top ten bestseller. 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 Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online - a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet's conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age. 'A riveting account . . . Reads like a literary thriller' - New York Times

Reviews

The world's most famous whistleblower * Guardian *
A riveting account . . . Reads like a literary thriller * New York Times *
Riveting, pacy * Financial Times *
Fascinating * Observer *
Gripping * Washington Post *
His disclosures of mass surveillance and bulk collection of personal information are as relevant now as they were in 2013 * Guardian *
Full of surprises . . . A deeply reluctant whistleblower . . . he deserves our thanks * Nation *
Well-written * The Economist *
A very significant figure in the history of intelligence * Sunday Times *
[A] thriller plot * London Review of Books *
A thoughtful and elegantly written book -- Steven Poole, New Statesmen
An extraordinary book -- Cory Doctorow

Author Bio

Edward Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and grew up in the shadow of Fort Meade. A systems engineer by training, he served as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, and worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency. He has received numerous awards for his public service, including the Right Livelihood Award, the German Whistleblower Prize, the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling, and the Carl von Ossietzky Medal from the International League of Human Rights. Currently, he serves as president of the board of directors of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.