Edward SnowdenPermanent Record

Edward Snowden is the most well-known whistleblower in history. In 2013 he stunned the world when he revealed that the American NSA (with the collaboration of Canada’s CSE) was well on its way to collecting and recording every single phone call, text message and e-mail in the world.In Permanent Record, he acknowledges that this revelation shouldn’t have been so shocking, since:‘The Internet is fundamentally American. It’s not just the Internet’s infrastructure that I’m defining as fundamentally American – it’s the computer software (Microsoft, Google, Oracle) and hardware (HP, Apple, Dell), too. It’s everything from the chips (Intel, Qualcomm), to the routers and modems (Cisco, Juniper), to the Web services and platforms that provide email and social networking and cloud storage (Google, Facebook, and the most structurally important but invisible Amazon, which provides cloud services to the US government along with half the Internet). Though some of these companies might manufacture their devices in, say, China, the companies themselves are American and are subject to American law. The problem is, they’re also subject to classified American policies that pervert law and permit the US government to surveil virtually every man, woman and child who has ever touched a computer or picked up a phone.’Most of Snowden’s revelations have already been reported, notably in investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide, as well as in the documentary film Citizenfour. Nonetheless, Permanent Record makes for interesting reading.‘The worst-kept secret in modern diplomacy is that the primary function of an embassy nowadays is to serve as a platform for espionage. Sure, embassies do still send the occasional demarche and help support their citizens abroad, and then there are the consular sections that issue visas and renew passports. But what justifies the expense is the ability for a country to use the cover of its foreign service to conduct and legitimize its spying.’‘In national security contracting, especially in tech contracting, you often find yourself physically working at an agency facility, but nominally – on paper – working for Dell, or Lockheed Martin, or one of the umpteen smaller firms that frequently get bought by a Dell or a Lockheed Martin. Your day-to-day work, though, remains the same: you’re still sitting at the agency facility, doing your tasks. Meanwhile, the dozen coworkers sitting on your left and right – the same coworkers you work with on the same projects daily – might technically be employed by a dozen different companies, and those companies might still be a few degrees removed from the corporate entities that hold the primary contracts with the agency. The CIA had hired BAE Systems, which had hired COMSO, which hired me.’Since Snowden’s 2013 revelations, a lot has happened, not the least of which were the Brexit vote, and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 with the online help of the Russians, as explained in detail in The Disinformation Report from New Knowledge; The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project; and in the Netflix film The Great Hack.One key takeaway from Snowden’s book is that whoever controls cyberspace controls the world. Canada is not immune to this power struggle, as documented in The Western Alliance in the Face of the Russian Disinformation Machine: Where Does Canada Stand?, and our own shocking scandal with Cameron Ortis allegedly selling the most sensitive secrets of the Five Eyes alliance (the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand) to a foreign adversary.While Snowden’s revelations are no longer new, Permanent Record provides an interesting first-person account of how a 29-year-old came to the decision to enlighten the rest of us.

Firstly, I'm an admirer of Snowden and think what he did was a great service to the whole world. His book, not so much. Snowden is not a professional writer and it shows. Snowden is at his best when writing technical journals and less so when writing prose. I thought that his attempts at humor mostly fell flat. The first 82 pages recounted his unremarkable childhood which was little different than yours or mine which to me anyway was a bit boring, just like ours. A good editor could have shrunk this to less than 25 pages. Chapter #9, "X-Ray", was about his time in boot camp which anyone who has ever gone through boot camp would recognize and it was well-done. The book started to come alive in Part Two and had me hooked by chapter #13, "Indoc".. By the time Snowden got to the actual workings of the NSA, CIA, and all of their subcontractors and how the system works I couldn't put the book down. My copy came on Weds and I read through the night and finished it today (Thurs) Had I just the first 80 pages I would have rated the book 2 stars or the final 250 pages, 4 stars.. I think 3.5 would be fair but Amazon doesn't allow us to split stars.. I think Snowden's editor failed him..I

Let us first settle something about me with regards to this book. I was very conflicted with Snowden's actions when first reported. This is because I have always been very concerned about privacy and believe strongly in the need for individual's who are in the know, to shine a light on the darkest areas of government. (Any government, not just the USA). But I also, am strongly, concerned with national security and national interests AND the need to uphold your oath of office, and the IMPLIED meaning of that oath too.Snowden does a good job of both explaining and justifying his actions, as well as detailing the chain of events that are involved in this real life drama. Having served in the military myself, I realize that the oath of office is to the constitution and specifically, the American people it represents, NOT to an organization or individual, or indeed the government of the country.In all honesty, if I was in such a situation as Snowden was/is, I do not know if I would have had the courage to lose everything, in such a manner. This is after all not what they teach you in class for civic duty, or in the scouts or in the military, nor is it the traditional view/idea of what a person of courage should do. But is EXACTLY what is needed for our civil society to survive, we need the 4th estate and people like Snowden are part of that. This is still not necessarily the type of action I would approve, in a military situation, and by extension in the intelligence community, but again, having read and heard Snowden's reasoning and situation, I can at least honestly say that it gives me pause, and makes me think, about what is truly a patriot.Yet, I am still very uneasy about this in so many ways.I do suggest this as a read, especially if you are against Snowden or his actions, but also if you are for him, if only so you can get a good grasp of what his actions meant/means, because you might be surprised about your preconceived biases

This is great and a must read. Saw his podcasts with Joe Rogan and thought give the book a go. Even the nerdy bits are interesting and really make you think about the world we live in.His contact with journalists is fascinating and you realise one wrong move and he would have ended up in an orange jump suit locked up 24/7 under a mountain in Colorado. Fascinating also reading about how liberal Joe Biden got every country to refuse him entry. Really interesting read.

I am a big promoter of technological privacy and Edward Snowden is a hero when it comes to exposing the mass surveillance of the global population. This book does not contain any specific government secrets and is just his account of his life and what lead to his exile. I was unable to put this book down and managed to read a significant portion on the first day of its release.