《Permanent Record》简介：

dward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.

In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.

Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online—a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet’s conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.

《Permanent Record》摘录：

在学校，教科书告诉我们，美国民主体制的精髓在于“一人一票”，这就是民主。但显然，民主不存在于我的美国历史课堂，若是我们班上都能投票的话，那历史老师马丁先生肯定会失业。相反的，马丁先生为美国历史课堂设下规则，正如同英文老师伊凡斯太太、科学老师斯威尼先生与数学老师史塔克顿先生等人，这些老师经常更改规则以助益自己并扩大权力。若老师不希望你们上厕所，那你们最好先憋着。若老师取消带你们参访史密森尼学会的行程，那他们根本不必多做解释，只要拿出“权威不容挑战、秩序需要维护”的态度即可。在那时，我便体会到反对体制的困难，尤其是涉及到更改规则以符合多数人的需求，因为这有害于订定规则者的利益。这便是每个系统的重大缺点或设计瑕疵，不论是在政治或电脑领域皆然，换句话说，创造规则的人没有理由与自己作对。 我认为，学校是一个不合理的体制，因为它容不下任何合理的质疑。我可以据理力争直到精疲力尽，或是干脆接受现实，承认一开始就无权置喙。 但是，历史经验证明，学校这个看似仁慈的暴君终有被推翻的一天。否决学生独立思考的空间，将成为他们起身反抗的导火线，尽管许多青少年经常将抵抗与逃避或暴力混淆在一起。一般叛逆青少年发泄情绪的管道，对我来说根本没用，因为毁坏公物不是我的风格，而我又不敢尝试嗑药（直到今日，我仍没有酗酒或抽烟的经验）。相反的，我选择最聪明、最健康、最具教育性的方式，这是我所知道最能帮助青少年夺回自治权、与成年人平起平坐的方法，那就是骇客。”