Permanent Record

To what extent did the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center affect Snowden as a person? How did he react in their aftermath? How did the intelligence community react, and how did their reaction lead to the birth of mass surveillance? How did the attacks affect the American people and influence them to trade individual freedom for the security blanket of surveillance?

Snowden was raised in the Beltway—the area around Washington D.C.—and his parents worked with the U.S. government. How did his experience of public service differ from theirs?

Discuss the pros and cons of mass surveillance and its inevitable tension with personal privacy. How did the NSA’s mass surveillance program violate the Fourth Amendment?  What might the consequences be of giving up protections from illegal search and seizure?

Though Snowden’s book is an autobiography, the text takes on the tropes of other genres. Which sections of the book would you most liken to a thriller? How do those sections accelerate the narrative and add tension to the story?

Explain the symbolism of the Rubik’s cube, which Snowden uses at numerous times in the book. How do they help him deal with individual emotional chaos? How do they parallel his self-perception as a hacker of systems?

When it came time to leak the documents, Snowden knew, for the first time, that he could no longer act alone. What could the journalists do that he could not? What new skills did he learn as he evolved from lone actor to cooperating witness?

In the penultimate chapter, the narrative voice switches from Edward Snowden to Lindsay Mills. How does Lindsay’s perspective affect the story being told? As she discovers the existence of mass surveillance, how do her experiences mirror the population at large?

Given the precarious nature of Snowden’s situation at the end of the book and the extent to which technology continues to be an essential part of modern society, to what extent do you believe that he succeeded in his goals? How has reading this book changed your views about personal privacy, and what steps do you plan to take to better safeguard your data?