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Permanent Record: How One Man Exposed the Truth about Government Spying and Digital Security
Edward Snowden blows the whistle on state secrecy for a younger readership
SNOWDEN-INSPIRED: 2013 Berlin demonstration against PRISM, code name for a programme used by US National Security Agency (NSA) to trawl information from US internet companies [Mike Herbst/Creative Commons]

PERMANENT Record, Edward Snowden’s 2019 memoir, full of the seamy details of state corruption that can get a whistleblower in trouble, has just been released in a young readers’ edition.

It’s squarely aimed at a young readership and has all the stuff they love in a book — adventure, fighting tyrants, young love, righteous parental moral homilies, unspeakable mum and dad divorce, ideals turned dystopic — along with with a fascistic capitalism portrayed as a nearly indestructible cyborg.

The book follows Snowden’s childhood years through to September 11 terror attacks wake-up and how he became a whistleblower.

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