Article archive / December 2019
Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Michael Chafetz, PhD Neuropsychologist, New Orleans Author
Ed Snowden is the tech genius who exposed the methods by which the National Security Agency (NSA) snoops and records private data on all of the country's citizens, and keeps a Permanent Record of this data. This book is a thriller. Not the kind with chase scenes and shoot- outs, but a delicious mental thriller that keeps you wondering how he will pull it off and not get caught. It is also a deeply personal story of how a young boy grows up to be a tech wizard and gains access to the country's most cherished secrets. Snowden's coming-of-age experience was 9/11. He wanted to do whatever he could to help. He joined the military but broke both legs in training and ultimately realized that he would be more able to contribute through the use of his computer gifts. He was able to hire on with the CIA and then NSA with a cover position through Dell Computers. As cloud computing started developing in earnest, he became appalled at the corporate surveillance in everyone's home, with appliances reporting back to their manufacturers about what you ate and what you watched on TV.
It's a small leap from corporate to government invasion of your privacy. Snowden took great pains to discuss our constitutional rights and show how privacy rights are interpretable from them. The way the NSA got around this was to redefine it within the context of your relationship to various corporations. They reasoned that because you had already shared your phone records with your phone service provider, you forfeited your privacy rights.
Snowden realized that to become a whistleblower, he would not only have to blow the whistle on secret programs but on the larger system of secrecy. The technological power of the government was frightening.
The story of how Snowden got the information into the hands of responsible journalists was compelling. Snowden's work prompted the change in various laws so that government is somewhat more restricted. He is still in exile and still feels the need to alter his appearance when he goes out. He works with a non-profit organization to help keep the internet more secure than it was in 2013. He is truly a man of conscience and courage.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.