Permanent Record
Edward Snowden tells his own story of becoming a systems engineer for the NSA and CIA and then deciding to reveal the extent of United States mass surveillance to journalists in 2013. He traces his childhood in a family of government employees, his early years online, his post 9/11 patriotism, and the internal moments when what he saw stopped matching what he had been told. The book covers the mechanics of the leak with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and then follows Snowden into asylum in Russia. It is also, quietly, a book about the modern web and how much of us it stores. The United States government sued to seize proceeds from the book, which only made it more visible.
What you might want to know about Permanent Record
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Edward Snowden's memoir of growing up online, joining the NSA, and blowing the whistle.
Swisher, who interviewed Snowden and has covered surveillance for years, has cited Permanent Record on her podcast as required reading for anyone who wants to understand what the modern internet does with our data.
Some sections explain how surveillance systems work, but Snowden writes for a general audience and grounds the tech in his own life.
Permanent Record was written by Edward Snowden, published in 2019 by Metropolitan Books.
Permanent Record is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Permanent Record takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
Permanent Record is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.