Permanent Record

A Memoir of a Reluctant Whistleblower

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Permanent Record

By: Edward Snowden

Narrated by: Holter Graham

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About this listen

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 and destined to be a classic.

Activists

Freedom & Security

Politicians

Politics & Activism

Politics & Government

Social Sciences

Surveillance

Espionage

Thought-Provoking

Inspiring

Hacking

Government

Russia

Computer Security

Imperial Japan

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Critic reviews

Riveting, pacy

The world's most famous whistleblower

Fascinating

A riveting account . . . Reads like a literary thriller

Gripping

His disclosures of mass surveillance and bulk collection of personal information are as relevant now as they were in 2013

Full of surprises . . . A deeply reluctant whistleblower . . . he deserves our thanks

Well-written

A very significant figure in the history of intelligence

Thriller plot

A thoughtful and elegantly written book (Steven Poole, New Statesmen)

Most relevant

What a great listen. A great book with a tremendous true story. Hard to put down. Turkey world changing