Permanent Record

Edward Snowden

Sep 2019 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Holter Graham

About this audiobook

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 and destined to be a classic.

Ratings and reviews

I was growing up, in college at the time, when the infamous"NSA" announcement was made. Back then I was too absorbed to read into what was happening until it was too late and I personally let ignorance cloud my actions. Now, hearing the vast personal account of Mr. Snowden has given me new reason to rethink how much of my life, a large part of it, is available at the click of a keyboard.

I think that we all should read/listen to this book as it is a cry of one's man for a democracy and privacy for our own lives. I consider Edward as a hero that have risked and lost almost everything, so we know what our government is doing.

Definitely worth the read. Humbling to see how technology and government has been twisted in the past and opens your eyes to how it can be in the future.

About the author

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.