Permanent Record
Complex
Easy read
Educational

Permanent Record

NEW YORK TIMES 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 and destined to be a classic.
Sign up to use

Reviews

Photo of ラップの神 del ray🗡🐸
ラップの神 del ray🗡🐸@wawilow108
5 stars
Mar 4, 2025

how i don't read this before????

good asf

+10
Photo of Magaly Belmontes
Magaly Belmontes@magalybelmon
5 stars
Jan 29, 2024

Permanent Record" is Edward Snowden's memoir, offering an insightful look into his life, the NSA surveillance revelations, and his decision to expose classified information. It raises important questions about government surveillance and individual privacy, making it a thought-provoking read for those interested in civil liberties and digital rights. Great book!!

+3
Photo of Mani Mohan
Mani Mohan@manee
5 stars
Aug 29, 2023

This is an amazing book which tells the reader about Snowden's side of the story. More than that, it speaks in great depth about data security and data privacy which we are starting to talk about these days. A must read for anyone who followed his story for past few years, and it's a must read for anyone who worries about data security and privacy. Data should be private, and data should be secure. Cheers to Ed for writing this! Keep writing more.

Photo of Anvar Cukoski
Anvar Cukoski @anvar
5 stars
Aug 17, 2023

Hörbuch

Photo of Wilde
Wilde@wildeaboutoscar
5 stars
Jul 3, 2023

Incredible insight into what someone will do for the freedom of others. I take back my grumbling about GDPR!

Photo of Sarah Schumacher
Sarah Schumacher@smschumacher
4 stars
Jun 25, 2023

I always enjoy meeting someone in their ideal career and hearing all the twists and turns in their story. The things that perfectly prepared them for their current role (career paths are rarely linear). This is very much the story Edward Snowden tells about his early experience with computers, the original Internet, and programming. It’s fascinating from a career trajectory standpoint, but mostly because he seems to be the only one to see the big picture. His conviction and preparation to give up everything are unbelievable. I also appreciated hearing about his girlfriend and what she went through, as that was something I thought about often at the time.

Photo of Anthony
Anthony@amorriscode
4 stars
Mar 25, 2023

I’ll be honest, I was hoping for more technical stuff and more talk about the information Edward released. I was also expecting it to be more about his life post-leak. That being said, I enjoyed Ed’s story. His writing impressed me and whatever writing school Joshua Cohen put him through is one I’d like to attend. It was interesting to see how his family background helped set him up to do what he ended up doing. The book briefly touches on interesting tech, the government, and even love. Nothing mind blowing but a good read nonetheless.

Photo of Diamond Jim
Diamond Jim@diamondjimbonjour
5 stars
Feb 7, 2023

Must read if you want to understand mass surveillance. Great book by an American hero.

Photo of Shona Tiger
Shona Tiger@shonatiger
4 stars
Jan 19, 2023

May not agree with his politics or even necessarily like the person he describes in the book, or his rants - but an interesting and possibly important read.

Photo of Simao Freitas
Simao Freitas@simao
5 stars
Jan 19, 2023

Very good pace and incredible well written.

Photo of Andy Sporring
Andy Sporring@andysporring
4 stars
Nov 20, 2022

Was a bit disappointing, but hey then guy is already a legend.

Photo of Yasser Yahia
Yasser Yahia@yasseryahia
3 stars
Sep 2, 2022

There is a huge difference between suspecting that something exists and knowing for sure that it does. It is scary and unsettling to know that everything (like literally everything) that you do online (and some of your offline activities as well) is not just being recorded, but will be kept forever!! You'll die but those records are not going anywhere. They will always be there for some government to use against you when the time comes.

Photo of Kuba Milcarz
Kuba Milcarz@kubamilcarz
4 stars
Aug 17, 2022

Last year I listened to an audiobook version. Once again my experiments proved that reading >>> listening to audiobooks. Fascinating story!

Photo of Jk Jensen
Jk Jensen@jkj
5 stars
Aug 14, 2022

Permanent Record is a well written memoir of Snowden’s life from childhood through whistleblowing to now living in exile. I don’t know if he had a shadow writer but his voice shines through bright and strong and passionate. The technical explanations he gave were of an appropriate depth and the ending was just right; instead of calling you directly to action he offers the facts and lets you come to your own conclusions. Again, it was well written. You can tell great care was taken to tell the story and tell the most important aspects of it without boring the reader.

Photo of Emma Friedheim
Emma Friedheim@emrosemary
3 stars
Jun 24, 2022

Lotta thoughts. As far as memoirs go, this is certainly a fascinating read. Did it change my mind? No, it did not. But it is always interesting to get a small window into someone's mind.

Photo of Nat Welch
Nat Welch@icco
3 stars
Dec 29, 2021

Not too much here that I didn't know, that being said, was pretty well written, but not very engaging.

Photo of Luisa Mallory
Luisa Mallory @lulila
5 stars
Nov 6, 2021

This book that pictures a big part of Edward Snowden's life was a very good read for me. I finished it within 2 days, because it was written so well and grasping. I was in possession of the basic knowledge about this whole happening, but this book gave me some more insight and I now know for sure what a brave man Snowden is, and I hope people like him will have better chances for continuing their life as they like in the future.

+9
Photo of Rob Brogan
Rob Brogan@rob
4 stars
Sep 14, 2021

Really great to have a broader perspective on this huge shift in our perception of technology. I admit skipping a little bit in the beginning where it felt the intro-level explanations of some things were too rudimentary for me. I understand it's good to reach a broader audience, so I won't fault him for that. Great book overall!

Photo of Kirill So
Kirill So@kirill
3 stars
Aug 14, 2021

Overall I was psyched to read the book but it came out as a bit of a disappointment. The book is catered towards a general audience and has a lot of explanations how IT systems and databases work. As a technologist for some time the insights were not super valuable (aside of explanation how surveillance and other data mining was working). I think for the majority it's an insightful bridge to the world of mass data collection and what happened. I really enjoyed reading about the reasons why Ed did what he did and his thought process. However, my expectations were a bit higher with some more details on what happened to post Moscow and what's next for the future.

Photo of Darice de Cuba
Darice de Cuba@Darice
5 stars
Jul 27, 2021

You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who never heard of Edward Snowden. Many of us can still remember when the news broke that the NSA is able to spy on anyone and that many countries are helping with this and doing this also. With this memoir, we get to know the person, Ed. Ed tells us about his childhood, growing up in a family of public servants. How 9/11 changed him. The road to becoming an NSA sub-contractee and his ultimate decision to expose the truth. If you, like Ed, are a child of the 80's you'll recognize some of the similar experiences. And especially if you are also a geek/nerd, you'll enjoy his NES stories amongst others, and when he explains the technical details involved in his life and later, work. Ed is also very knowledgeable at politics and philosophy, not the bookish kind, but the moral and ethical dilemmas. The part of the book that touched me most, was the, till this book, untold part. His personal struggle when he found out the truth, coming to a decision about what to do. His relationship with his girlfriend during those years. The flight to Hong Kong, how the story almost never was. The refugees who helped and protected him. “They fed me, they let me bathe, they let me sleep, and they protected me. I will never be able to explain what it meant to be given so much by those with so little, to be accepted by them without judgment as I perched in corners like a stray street cat,” It brought tears to my eyes when you finally really absorb and understand the sacrifices he made. He believed he would never see his loved ones again. “The preparations I was making were those of a man about to die. I emptied my bank accounts, putting cash into an old steel ammo box for Lindsay to find so that the government couldn’t seize it. I went around the house doing oft-procrastinated chores, like fixing windows and changing lightbulbs.” This book should be read by everyone. To make one aware of what real journalism is, of how fragile our freedom is and to have the courage to stand-up when needed.

Photo of Paventhan
Paventhan@paven
5 stars
Jul 7, 2023
+4
Photo of muesli
muesli@muesli
4.5 stars
Sep 13, 2022
Photo of Robin
Robin@iamrobin
4 stars
Sep 8, 2022
Photo of Luca Stromann
Luca Stromann@l-s
4 stars
Aug 31, 2022