124 Facts About Edward Snowden

Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21,1983 and is an American former NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.

In 2013, while working as a government contractor, Snowden leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency ; exposing the United States' Secret Service and Government spying on the world's internet usage.

Edward Snowden's disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.

In 2013, Edward Snowden was hired by an NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, after previous employment with Dell and the CIA.

Edward Snowden says he gradually became disillusioned with the programs with which he was involved and that he tried to raise his ethical concerns through internal channels but was ignored.

On May 20,2013, Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong after taking medical leave from his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii, and in early June he revealed thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill.

Edward Snowden came to international attention after stories based on the material appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other publications.

In September 2022, Edward Snowden was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin.

Edward Snowden's disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy, something that he has said he intended to deal with in prospective interviews.

Edward Snowden has defended his actions as an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them".

Edward Snowden has a job at an unnamed Russian IT company.

On September 2,2020, a US federal court ruled in United States v Moalin that one of the US intelligence's mass surveillance programs exposed by Snowden was illegal and possibly unconstitutional.

Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21,1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Edward Snowden's father, Lonnie, was a warrant officer in the US Coast Guard, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a clerk at the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

Edward Snowden's older sister, Jessica, was a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC Edward Snowden's maternal grandfather, Edward J Barrett, a rear admiral in the Coast Guard, became a senior official with the FBI and was at the Pentagon in 2001 during the September 11 attacks.

Edward Snowden said that he had expected to work for the federal government, as had the rest of his family.

Edward Snowden's parents divorced in 2001, and his father remarried.

Edward Snowden was interested in Japanese popular culture, had studied the Japanese language, and worked for an anime company that had a resident office in the US Edward Snowden said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and was deeply interested in martial arts.

In September 2019, as part of interviews relating to the release of his memoir Permanent Record, Edward Snowden revealed to The Guardian that he married Lindsay Mills in a courthouse in Moscow.

Edward Snowden did not complete the training due to a leg injury and was given an administrative discharge on September 28,2004.

Edward Snowden was then employed for less than a year in 2005 as a security guard at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Study of Language, a research center sponsored by the National Security Agency.

In June 2014, Edward Snowden told Wired that his job as a security guard required a high-level security clearance, for which he passed a polygraph exam and underwent a stringent background investigation.

In May 2006, Edward Snowden wrote in Ars Technica that he had no trouble getting work because he was a "computer wizard".

Edward Snowden was sent to the CIA's secret school for technology specialists, where he lived in a hotel for six months while studying and training full-time.

Edward Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as formative, stating that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home.

Edward Snowden said that when the latter was arrested for drunk driving, a CIA operative offered to help in exchange for the banker becoming an informant.

In February 2009, following six counseling sessions from his supervisors regarding poor performance, Edward Snowden resigned from the CIA.

In 2009, Edward Snowden began work as a contractor for Dell, which manages computer systems for multiple government agencies.

Edward Snowden looked into mass surveillance in China which prompted him to investigate and then expose Washington's mass surveillance program after he was asked in 2009 to brief a conference in Tokyo.

US officials and other sources familiar with the investigation said Edward Snowden began downloading documents describing the government's electronic spying programs while working for Dell in April 2012.

Investigators estimated that of the 50,000 to 200,000 documents Edward Snowden gave to Greenwald and Poitras, most were copied by Edward Snowden while working at Dell.

The NSA sent a memo to Congress saying that Edward Snowden had tricked a fellow employee into sharing his personal private key to gain greater access to the NSA's computer system.

The former colleague said Edward Snowden was given full administrator privileges with virtually unlimited access to NSA data.

Edward Snowden was offered a position on the NSA's elite team of hackers, Tailored Access Operations, but turned it down to join Booz Allen.

An anonymous source later said that Booz Allen's hiring screeners found possible discrepancies in Edward Snowden's resume but still decided to hire him.

Edward Snowden's resume stated that he attended computer-related classes at Johns Hopkins University.

The University of Maryland University College acknowledged that Edward Snowden had attended a summer session at a UM campus in Asia.

Edward Snowden's resume stated that he estimated he would receive a University of Liverpool computer security master's degree in 2013.

The university said that Edward Snowden registered for an online master's degree program in computer security in 2011 but was inactive as a student and had not completed the program.

Edward Snowden observed that this behavior happened routinely every two months but was never reported, being considered one of the "fringe benefits" of the work.

Edward Snowden said that he had told multiple employees and two supervisors about his concerns, but the NSA disputes his claim.

In May 2014, US officials released a single email that Edward Snowden had written in April 2013 inquiring about legal authorities but said that they had found no other evidence that Edward Snowden had expressed his concerns to someone in an oversight position.

In June 2014, the NSA said it had not been able to find any records of Edward Snowden raising internal complaints about the agency's operations.

The unclassified portion of a September 15,2016, report by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, initiated by the chairman and Ranking Member in August 2014, and posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, concluded that Edward Snowden was not a whistleblower in the sense required by the Whistleblower Protection Act.

The exact size of Edward Snowden's disclosure is unknown, but Australian officials have estimated 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files and British officials estimate at least 58,000 British intelligence files were included.

NSA Director Keith Alexander initially estimated that Edward Snowden had copied anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents.

On June 14,2015, the London Sunday Times reported that Russian and Chinese intelligence services had decrypted more than 1 million classified files in the Edward Snowden cache, forcing the UK's MI6 intelligence agency to move agents out of live operations in hostile countries.

Edward Snowden later made contact with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist working at The Guardian.

Edward Snowden contacted Greenwald anonymously as "Cincinnatus" and said he had sensitive documents that he would like to share.

Edward Snowden then contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013.

Edward Snowden communicated using encrypted email, and going by the codename "Verax".

Edward Snowden asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by stylometry.

In May 2013, Edward Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy.

On May 20,2013, Edward Snowden flew to Hong Kong, where he was staying when the initial articles based on the leaked documents were published, beginning with The Guardian on June 5.

The Guardians chief editor, Alan Rusbridger, credited Edward Snowden for having performed a public service.

Edward Snowden said in a January 2014 interview with German television that the NSA does not limit its data collection to national security issues, accusing the agency of conducting industrial espionage.

Edward Snowden first contemplated leaking confidential documents around 2008 but held back, partly because he believed the newly elected Barack Obama might introduce reforms.

Philby, like Edward Snowden, fled to Russia where he died in exile.

Edward Snowden made a number of claims about the Government Communications Security Bureau of New Zealand.

Edward Snowden accused the agency of conducting surveillance on New Zealand citizens and engaging in espionage between 2008 and 2016, when John Key served as the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

In May 2013, Edward Snowden quit his job, telling his supervisors he required epilepsy treatment, but instead fled the United States for Hong Kong on May 10.

Edward Snowden chose Hong Kong for its "spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent" at the time.

Edward Snowden remained in his room at the Mira Hotel after his arrival in the city, rarely going out.

Edward Snowden vowed to challenge any extradition attempt by the US government, and engaged Hong Kong-based Canadian human rights lawyer Robert Tibbo as a legal adviser.

Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post that he planned to remain in Hong Kong for as long as its government would permit.

Edward Snowden told the Post that "the United States government has committed a tremendous number of crimes against Hong Kong [and] the PRC as well," going on to identify Chinese Internet Protocol addresses that the NSA monitored and stating that the NSA collected text-message data for Hong Kong residents.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant subsequently reported that Edward Snowden was living at the Russian consulate shortly before his departure from Hong Kong to Moscow.

In early September 2013 Russian president Vladimir Putin said that, a few days before boarding a plane to Moscow, Edward Snowden met in Hong Kong with Russian diplomatic representatives.

However Edward Snowden became initially stranded in Russia upon his landing in Moscow when his US passport was revoked.

Hong Kong authorities said that Edward Snowden had not been detained for the US because the request had not fully complied with Hong Kong law and there was no legal basis to prevent Edward Snowden from leaving.

Edward Snowden said that having the document gave him "the confidence, the courage to get on that plane to begin the journey".

In October 2013, Edward Snowden said that before flying to Moscow, he gave all the classified documents he had obtained to journalists he met in Hong Kong and kept no copies for himself.

On June 23,2013, Edward Snowden landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

Edward Snowden had a seat reserved to continue to Cuba but did not board that onward flight, saying in a January 2014 interview that he intended to transit through Russia but was stopped en route.

Edward Snowden said "a planeload of reporters documented the seat I was supposed to be in" when he was ticketed for Havana, but the US canceled his passport.

Greenwald said Edward Snowden was thus forced to stay in Moscow and seek asylum.

An anonymous US official not authorized to discuss the matter told the Associated Press Edward Snowden's passport had been revoked before he left Hong Kong, but that a senior official in a country or airline could order subordinates to overlook the withdrawn passport.

Edward Snowden said in July 2013 that he decided to bid for asylum in Russia because he felt there was no safe way to reach Latin America.

Edward Snowden said he remained in Russia because "when we were talking about possibilities for asylum in Latin America, the United States forced down the Bolivian president's plane", citing the Morales plane incident.

Biden had telephoned Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa days prior to Edward Snowden's remarks, asking the Ecuadorian leader not to grant Edward Snowden asylum.

In November 2014, Germany announced that Edward Snowden had not renewed his previously denied request and was not being considered for asylum.

Edward Snowden added that Venezuela's grant of asylum formalized his legal status as an asylum-seeker, removing any basis for state interference with his right to asylum.

Edward Snowden said he would request asylum in Russia until he resolved his travel problems.

In October 2020, Edward Snowden was granted permanent residency in Russia.

Edward Snowden's lawyer said that granting an unlimited residence permit became possible after changes in the migration legislation of the Russian Federation in 2019.

Edward Snowden was asked in a January 2014 interview about returning to the US to face the charges in court, as Obama had suggested a few days prior.

On September 17,2019, the United States filed a lawsuit, Civil Action No 1:19-cv-1197-LO-TCB, against Edward Snowden for alleged violations of non-disclosure agreements with the CIA and NSA.

The effect of the ruling was that the US government can collect the proceeds from his book and speeches and means that Edward Snowden has to relinquish more than $5.2 million earned to a "constructive trust", created to transfer the money to the government.

On June 23,2013, Edward Snowden landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport aboard a commercial Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong.

Edward Snowden had the choice to apply for renewal of his temporary refugee status for 12 months or requesting a permit for temporary stay for three years.

In December 2013, Edward Snowden told journalist Barton Gellman that supporters in Silicon Valley had donated enough bitcoin for him to live on.

Edward Snowden said his work for the NSA and CIA showed him that the United States Intelligence Community had "hacked the Constitution", and that he had concluded there was no option for him but to expose his revelations via the press.

Edward Snowden has used the pseudonym John Dobbertin.

In 2016, from Russia, Edward Snowden participated in the creation ceremony of the zcash cryptocurrency as John Dobbertin, by briefly holding a part of the private cryptographic key for the zcash genesis block, before destroying it.

Edward Snowden has said that, in the 2008 United States presidential election, he voted for a third-party candidate; he said that he "believed in Obama's promises".

In 2019, Edward Snowden said that US Senator and then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is "the most fundamentally decent man in politics".

Edward Snowden's remarks came in response to an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Richard J Leon, had ruled in a contemporaneous case before him that the NSA warrantless surveillance program was likely unconstitutional; Wiebe then proposed that Snowden should be granted amnesty and allowed to return to the United States.

On September 2,2020, a US federal court ruled that the US intelligence's mass surveillance program, exposed by Edward Snowden, was illegal and possibly unconstitutional.

Edward Snowden gave written testimony in which he said that he was seeking asylum in the EU, but that he was told by European Parliamentarians that the US would not allow EU partners to make such an offer.

Edward Snowden, speaking to a Geneva, Switzerland audience via video link from Moscow, said he would love to return to Geneva, where he had previously worked undercover for the CIA.

On September 16,2019, it was reported that Edward Snowden had said he "would love" to get political asylum in France.

Edward Snowden first applied unsuccessfully for asylum in France in 2013, under then French President Francois Hollande.

At the meeting, Edward Snowden gave Strobele a letter to the German government, parliament, and federal Attorney-General, the details of which were to later be made public.

Germany later blocked Edward Snowden from testifying in person in an NSA inquiry, citing a potential grave strain on US-German relations.

Edward Snowden made asylum requests to Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

Edward Snowden was granted a freedom of speech award by the Oslo branch of the writer's group PEN International.

Edward Snowden then filed a lawsuit for free passage through Norway in order to receive his freedom of speech award, through Oslo's District Court, followed by an appeals court, and finally Norway's Supreme Court.

Support for Edward Snowden came from Latin and South American leaders including the Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Edward Snowden was voted as The Guardians person of the year 2013, garnering four times the number of votes as any other candidate.

In March 2014, Edward Snowden spoke at the South by Southwest Interactive technology conference in Austin, Texas, in front of 3,500 attendees.

Edward Snowden participated by teleconference carried over multiple routers running the Google Hangouts platform.

Edward Snowden said that the NSA was "setting fire to the future of the internet," and that the SXSW audience was "the firefighters".

Later that month, Edward Snowden appeared by teleconference at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Edward Snowden described the NSA's PRISM program as the US government using businesses to collect data for them, and that the NSA "intentionally misleads corporate partners" using, as an example, the Bullrun decryption program to create backdoor access.

Edward Snowden said he would gladly return to the US if given immunity from prosecution, but that he was more concerned about alerting the public about abuses of government authority.

On September 15,2014, Edward Snowden appeared via remote video link, along with Julian Assange, on Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth town hall meeting held in Auckland.

Edward Snowden made a similar video link appearance on February 2,2015, along with Greenwald, as the keynote speaker at the World Affairs Conference at Upper Canada College in Toronto.

On November 10,2015, Edward Snowden appeared at the Newseum, via remote video link, for PEN American Center's "Secret Sources: Whistleblowers, National Security and Free Expression," event.

In 2015, Edward Snowden earned over $200,000 from digital speaking engagements in the US.

On March 19,2016, Edward Snowden delivered the opening keynote address of the LibrePlanet conference, a meeting of international free software activists and developers presented by the Free Software Foundation.

The conference was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the first such time Edward Snowden spoke via teleconference using a full free software stack, end-to-end.

Edward Snowden took the opportunity to affirm his role as a whistleblower, inform viewers of Tulsiani's background, and encourage investors to conduct proper research before spending any money.

On November 2,2018, Snowden provided a court declaration in Jewel v National Security Agency, confirming that a document relied upon in the case, discussing the mass surveillance program known as Stellar Wind, is actually the same document that he came upon during the course of his employment as an NSA contractor.