The book recounts Snowden's fears that the United States is following in the footsteps of China's surveillance of its citizenry, his discovery that these worries were true when he stumbled across a classified report while working for the National Security Agency , and his decision to sneak documentation of the NSA's techniques to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. The selling point of Permanent Record is its insight into why Snowden did what he did and how he feels about the state of the world today.
Snowden's decision to become a whistleblower sprang from his strong belief that the Constitution is supposed to restrain the government's power over the public. He was angry when he discovered the documents describing just how extensive the NSA's post-9/11 domestic surveillance program STELLARWIND was.
In Permanent Record, Snowden argues that the mass collection of Americans' data without individualized warrants violates our Fourth Amendment rights.
We'd been assured that our private data was being carefully, thoughtfully handledthat serious oversight and meaningful protections were in place.
Snowden describes the sometimes overly friendly relationship between tech companies and the government, which at times had the former giving the latter access to our info without our knowledge.
The ability to secretly bypass encryption would simply allow new avenues of warrantless surveillance of American citizens.
A New York Times poll of six swing states shows the progressive candidates faring worse against President Trump than comparatively moderate Joe Biden.
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