Permanent Record

This is a Great book as both Republicans and Democrats Hate it . Having been in the whistleblower position myself. It does not surprise me that some people give this a one star. If you live a simple life without any challenges, and you failed to challenge the system itself you will never see the dark side exists. Furthermore most people do not realize that whistleblowing does not have its rewards. Most the time it destroys a life for a very minimal disrupts for years to come. I was born and raised in what is now known as Silicone Valley, I saw the rise of technology that most elsewhere in the United States was unknown at the time. Wafers and punch cards were a sign of things to come. My mom worked on Skylab to help develop chips ever used. Most people do not realize how early on in our technological growth we were using advanced technology . This book makes clear what I've always known throughout my life that there was much more going on in the technological areas and was known to the public. Living in the San Francisco Bay area one is subjected to technology and military influences. Well into the 1990s this technology walked hand-in-hand with our Armed Forces. I probably had more access than Edward Snowden did technology as it was right at my front door. I could ride my bike no more than a half a mile or so and be at the closest electronic firm where we would dumpster dive and learn from what was being tossed out. Back then everyone throughout everything and nobody cared what they were throwing away. Edward Snowden is example of the most extreme whistleblowing. He is also paying a heavy price which I do not think most people realize who are reading this book and give it a low score. I understand his perspective very much so having seen very similar activities in my own personal life. And looking beyond those who knew me ever clueless as to what life really has in store. His perspective is you an idea that he is what we might call a very common individual, that had some interesting highlights in his life and sharing them to give you a perspective. Feminist perspective also helps us understand he is not simply a spy that was infiltrating the United States in espionage and technological gathering. More so it appears he was a person that battle with his own employment in future and doing the right thing. I know exactly what that feels like because I personally have been in that position and still dealing with the repercussions of my own actions being a whistleblower. The book, is written very well. He tells it as if he was narrating a movie, but he's actually telling us how he came to be where he was. I am happy that he did not disclose any information that would discredit the United States in this book. I think many are expecting to see the secrets that are hidden behind his acts. Unless you are living under a lock most of us understand that operating systems all have access, that everything that we use has access. Going back to the very first operating systems that existed there've always been ways to gather and reverse engineer that information making it possible to gather with the user and was doing all unknown to the individual. This is nothing new however we all look of line I did not realize the level that exists. Edward Snowden, has lost all his existing life. Many of us look for adjustments in our lives when things happen but reading this book you can tell that there is a separation of who he is now in who he once was so fast is that chasm, that even when he's writing this book you can tell he's not even sure who he is at this particular point. Not trying to do a psychological evaluation, but I do not think most people understand what losses on this level. Many of us lose loved ones, or have lost a valuable job, or have been forced to move thousands of miles away to another job. All these things are disruption to ourselves in the list of what is disruptive is amazing. But very few people likely in this world know what it's like to lose their country. Not just the country changing under them. The losing the country completely. Edward Snowden is no longer a citizen of the United States. Most of us reading this if you are in United States live under that comfort and blanket that we have knowingly our citizens here and we have the right to cherish that remarkable blanket that we have. The writer of this book has no such identity. It appears by reading the book that he still after all these years sees himself as a temporary permanent guest of Russia. If you want a book, it gives you the perspective and analogy of an individual that commits the act of whistleblowing on a international scale of consequences. This is a good book to read. If you're looking for top-secret information, I'm feeling espionage and cloak and dagger you will not see it here . This is actually one of the few books I have read with the individual tells about his own life story that I found interesting. Most people are too scared to get the information that I see in this book they don't want to reveal themselves, and they want for themselves in a better light than they are. Edward Snowden does not pull any punches in this book, and he makes it very clear about his position is. And that he does love the country that he left. I don't doubt that his intentions were done for good reasons that he saw. But it was careless on my own opinion for him to think that what he knew, and what he would reveal would not be adjusted and covered back up within a very short amount of time. One thing people should know about our government and most people do they just don't talk about it. Is we are very good about redirection in this country. It's what we do really well on all aspects and levels. It's not a negative type thing it's a poor sort of way our country solves the initial problem they are having. In closing I normally do not give to you like this, usually it's very statistic, and analogically placed. This one I had to give a personal point of view myself so what I was thinking. Edward Snowden is one of those people that would be great to sit across the table have a cup of coffee with them and just really talk about what's going on. Because this book does do a good job about that but I still have a couple of questions after reading it. And the questions have nothing to do with national security a more likely have to do with the fact that he had to of known that even revealing the information, that information would be short-lived if it was exposed. I think many of his superiors are looking at this also and wondering what he thought would change. Nothing would change in a very short amount of time this exposure would allow our nation to go even deeper keeping this information more readily available to its employees. Why did I say: This is a Great book as both Republicans and Democrats Hate it ? Because, when this was first revealed, both sides of the aisle wanted to take credit, and blame the other side with this security breach that allowed the information to be exposed. I found it interesting on the automatic misdirection, and redirection is done by our politicians immediately after this taken place. Meaning both sides hated the fact of what he did and knew that major damage control at the time would have to be enacted. And both sides wanted to be the hero. Definitely a five-star book and worth reading.

Idealism characterizes youth, it is mostly young people who carry revolutions, revolutions of thought, political revolutions and change in the social structure, since they are not part of the system, they grow up with it, then analyze the system and ask the single most important question in the pursuit of knowledge: Why? Reading the book of Ed Snowden I felt completely identified with much of his thoughts and experiences, when he makes reminiscences of his childhood, receiving his first computer and actually having his first experience with it, it reminded me of myself as a young teenager, experiencing first-hand a device that would certainly feel like not an external device, existing as an outer experience of the self but rather and experience of the self, connected to the human mind, a device that you could actually carry and improve tasks, not merely working as a tool but as a dynamic system that would integrate commands, speed, graphic beauty and knowledge. Every human being is idealistic in nature, political in nature, thoughtful in nature, every human being asks the questions of the why, it is when we realize we are in a world that we have to discover and define by ourselves that we realize that our parents, our first connection with the world, the mere individuals that brought us into this world will abandon them one day that our minds are puzzled and marveled at the same time by the beauty and mystery of life itself. God created us and through the study and cultivation of faith we feel more resilient to these questions, and feel that the nature of God could not be the nature of human being, otherwise we would understand perfectly the why and the how of life, and that is when we make a distinction, God is omnipotent and great and we are his creation, some questions are not in our realm to define. Then we turn our attention to more mundane things and events in life to experience existence in the best possible way we can, to a certain extent we drown those questions into oblivion but the questions remain there, asleep, quiet but definitely there, we adhere to a code of ethics that allows us to live a good, reasonable and honorable life, that’s enough to make us live well, without feeling pressured by those questions, it is when those inalienable rights and privileges we were granted by our birth are confronted that we ask again those questions, we turn into Politics and find certain deviations from the pure form and definitions of our systems, we turn into concepts like liberty, freedom, privacy and civil rights. To a technologist always busy by the inner workings of technology these are not questions usually puzzling his mind but to a restless mind like Ed’s this is not a minor endeavor, then upon finding what he deemed unconstitutional and unfair by the agencies he worked for, he took a decision that he had to stand by, disclose information and pay the price it came with it. Is freedom free? Should freedom and privacy be negotiable? For the sake of protecting your own liberty should you at the very least renounce to your liberty temporarily? What if you would have to renounce it permanently in the name of justice and social good? Would this be fair? In my opinion we currently renounce to many even in our social behavior, we don’t make loud noise in our houses in the name of peace and tranquility of our neighborhood, otherwise our neighbors could disturb us in retaliation, so a status-quo is defined and respected, in a way we are renouncing to a certain liberty in the name of social good to give an example. I remember many years ago hearing an interview of Ed Snowden where he denied any political confrontation with China, yet in this book he asserts to have been part of Intelligence Community conferences where the main topic was the discussion of China as a potential rival to the US, now that makes me doubt of the sincerity of his statements, past or current. Yet this book is worth reading. Is Ed Snowden a foe or a friend? Only time will tell.

This book is written as an adventure, it takes you throug the events and experiences that lead to the couragous act of exposing our worlds worst disease. It is an comprehensive page turner.

Je n'ai pas encore terminé la lecture de ce livre mais il est formidable, passionnant! L'auteur explique avec beaucoup de détails son enfance, parle de ses parents, nous aide à comprendre pourquoi il a finalement pris la très courageuse décision de sacrifier sa vie pour exposer la vérité, le secret..... que les US ont organisé une surveillance détaillé de TOUT le monde..... emails, conversations, photos, TOUT est enregistré et conservé à vie, d’où le titre du livre..... c'est effrayant. Achetez ce livre pour aider Edward Snowden à survivre, c'est la moindre des choses. C'est une honte que la France, à qui il a demandé l'asile, traine les pieds à le lui accorder!

An absolute must read for anyone who is open minded and loves a mystery, I love this so much I've bought a Hardcover to keep in my own personal library. We all know now after reading this book or listening to the Audio. That our media can be got at, at anytime, anywhere and even places you would think you are protected. So go read or listen to Permanent Record, it's worth the time. I listen to Glen Greenwalds book first so this was just icying on the Cake, but it doen't matter which order you read them, it's a must to read Both Glens "No Where to Hide" and this book "Permanent Record".

In this book Snowden gives a lot of details about his time at IC, his relation with Lindsay, family and so forth. There is also great details about his roles at IC. One of the best biographies I did read.

I like this book because you have to be so brave based in human rights values to write against the so called the most powerful country of the world, the USA. And he is American! Love his ‘forced’ written autobiography ( he hated since young to write about himself).