Engr'slog#7.0 // Permanent Record

"The only privacy that's left is inside of your head. Maybe that's enough"

What will it be like if you are being watched everyday, every moment and mostly with your own consent?. Will you give your freedom of privacy to be exploited by the state in the name of national interest, security and protection?. 

In recent years we have seen many rebuttals against Facebook, WhatsApp etc. for using data of users and exploiting it for election campaigns¹and commercialization. All these hidden exploits brought to light by various employees, thinking of betterment and freedom of their fellow citizens, not to mention consequences of their whistleblowing which caused threats to their lives and their loved ones alongwith financial crisis due to the strong powers of their employer conglomerates and weak justice systems.

Snowden began his career as technologist for CIA after 9/11 and later joined NSA. During his tenure, he worked as a systems engineer in US Embassy, Geneva bringing CIA into the future by digitizing and automating their networks and stations. Also helped in designing  global backup for the agency, a massive covert network that ensure that incase of nuclear blast, data would never be lost. The most notable contribution is building new type of computing architecture - a cloud, the first technology that enabled every agent, no matter where they were physically located, to access and search any data they needed, no matter the distance.

Since like all the covert operations and agency work, compartmentalization is key, with only leadership knowing the complete picture. CIA and NSA were transforming themselves to new era of digitalization and Snowden was the man leading the way although his works were also compartmentalized. However eventually through different events and human curiosity, Snowden deciphered the big picture, a giant machine to form a system of global mass surveillance. 

In this book, author* has put his entire life from his childhood, to joining CIA then NSA and finally exile as result of his whistleblowing. Snowden shared many documents with journalists relating to mass surveillance program created in the wake of 9/11. The program called PRISM enabled NSA to routinely collect data from Google, Skype, Facebook, YouTube etc. including emails, photos, videos and everything which then passes through different exploit programs and gives complete access to user's entire data in few seconds completely unbeknownst to the person.

Describing one such capability of this system, Snowden tells that after creating and using this program I got to realize that everyone who is online has one thing in common; they store photos and videos of their family. He also tells about a moment when one person being red-flagged by the system was being analyzed; with complete persona development based on his data, internet history etc. and there came a moment when Snowden accessed his computer camera with that person completely unaware of the hack although Snowden got nothing of interest but that person's kid playing with him during the entire hack.

Edward Snowden carried whistleblowing from Hong Kong where USA cannot exercise his powers due to diplomatic relations and later planned to move to Ecuador through Moscow with the help of Julian Assange² , but USA cancelled Snowden's nationality and so his passport while he was transitioning through Moscow. This put him in jeopardy, whilst media and US government portraying that Snowden is a Russian spy although his generation's were patriotic US citizens. Later asylum was granted by Russia on humanitarian grounds, not to mention the proverb: "enemy of my enemy is my friend".

In conclusion, Snowden's autobiography seems like a Hollywood action movie; a patriotic agent betrayed by his own, struggling to bring the truth to light, although this time his story is not fiction and is backed by tons of evidence. This book is an exciting read into how internet, a free utility created to create global community, with everyone having equal freedom of speech, is being exploited in the name of national security, and how patriotic people keeps on whistleblowing to maintain the status quo; freedom of speech, freedom of privacy and freedom to act; no matter the consequences. 

---

*Author: Edward Joseph Snowden

1. The Great Hack - Netflix Series

2. Julian Paul Assange - founder of Wiki Leaks

Readers may also watch the movie Snowden (2016), made on Edward Snowden and his whistleblowing of mass surveillance program. An excellent film played marvelously by actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.