Edward Snowden. The man who declassified America's system of mass wiretapping and public surveillance.
A system he helped build himself. Twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world in 2013 when, as a member of the CIA and NSA, he parted ways with the world of US intelligence and revealed information about the building of a system capable of recording every phone call, text message and email. The result would be a turning point in the history of espionage - a shift from monitoring individuals to entire nations. This would give the US government the ability to look into the privacy of every person who touches a computer or smartphone, permanently store the data and use it.
After years in Russian exile, Snowden reveals for the first time when and under what circumstances he felt the moral obligation to break the law and speak out. He explains the various steps he has taken in the belief that the action in question is contrary not only to the US Constitution but also to the fundamental values of any free society.
Snowden's autobiography, The Permanent Record, chronicles his childhood in an idyllic American suburb and his years in the CIA and NSA. It is an extraordinary testament to a bright young man who grew up on the internet and eventually became its conscience.
