Reading: September 20, 2023 – Permanent Record – Snowden

One thing I have never understood is why did Snowden choose to disclose these things? What benefits did he ultimately gain? As a senior technologist, he posed as a Dell employee, even impersonated diplomats in Geneva. I don't believe this person has low intelligence or emotional intelligence. I also don't believe he couldn't understand politics. Selling out the CIA must have been for his own interests, not what he claimed: for the pursuit of human freedom rights.
If he is mentally paranoid, as he described, believing the world is either black or white, then it's possible he did this.
The United States has become a country that finds it cheaper to buy new machines to replace faulty ones than to hire experts to repair them. Based on this fact alone, a technocracy is almost guaranteed to emerge. What enables tyranny isn't technology itself but rather those who use machines daily without understanding them. Refusing to understand how your devices work and how to repair them is passive acceptance of tyranny and its conditions: when your device functions normally, you do too, but when your device malfunctions, so do you - your possessions end up owning you.
If my input is flawed, the computer's output is flawed. If my input is flawless, the computer's output is flawless. I have never experienced something so consistent, fair, clearly expressed, and unbiased.
Growing up means realizing that your existence is subject to established norms, ambiguous rules, and arbitrary conventions imposed on you without your consent, and that can change anytime. You only notice them when you break the rules.
When 9/11 happened, many high-ranking officials were busy advocating the importance of increasing the budget and granting full authority, trying to expand their powers using fear tactics, beyond the imagination of ordinary citizens and congressmen.
Confusing the interests of the U.S. government with the interests of the American people is very dangerous (e.g., supporting war).
The military training's counting, singing, is mainly designed to make you lose your ability to think for yourself - especially after exhausting days, you become too weak to resist, just following orders.
The more patriotic thoughts are instilled, the easier it is to become a nationalist fanatic, falling into binary right-and-wrong thinking.
Previous generations often considered serving the country an ultimate honor, but for our generation, it's just a job.
Snowden was also part of the government's outsourcing of technical services (outsourcing is the third-largest "scam" in Washington).
Open Secret: Embassies primarily provide a platform for intelligence officers to engage in espionage activities.
Opponents can steal the highest global secrets, but unless someone brings them home, that's the real winner.
In the CIA, there is nothing more important than the chain of command.
When Snowden finished training, he wanted to go to a war zone or the front lines, but his superiors deliberately didn't send him where he wanted to go and sent him to Geneva, a place others dreamed of.
Switzerland - Geneva's status is indeed special.
I really want to learn the technology to stay anonymous on the internet…
The book actually recommends Tor Onion Protocol, routing, and browsers ("Tor changed my life, giving me the freedom to be unmonitored"), but of course, Tor's existence has also increased unnecessary costs for its own people.
"If some project members see information that matches their intelligence value and is attractive, about the age of a student, they will not hesitate to push me aside and sit next to them as much as possible."
There are various ways to establish contact with informants, such as drinking, getting drunk, letting them take you home, then notifying the police to arrest them for drunk driving, and after the fine, providing them with loans, making them rely on you, and then everything becomes easier.
"Swiss banks may not be involved in high-risk transactions that could lead to collapse, but they are more than willing to hide money that profits from others' suffering, and they don't have to be accountable for it."
The World Wide Web was invented in 1989 at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, but the usage of the internet has been dominated by the United States. Most of the internet infrastructure is controlled by the U.S., including cables, satellites, servers, and base stations. Over 90% of global internet traffic relies on technology developed, owned, or controlled by the U.S. government and U.S. corporations, most of which are located within the U.S.
While some of these companies may manufacture their products in China, they are still American companies and must comply with U.S. laws. The issue is that these companies are also subject to overreaching classified policies, meaning that their customers, regardless of age or gender, are monitored by the U.S. government when making phone calls or using computers.
Of course, the government may conceal the truth from those who help keep secrets because institutions like the CIA build a chain of command, and to control thought, you must control the truth (Snowden only discovered what the U.S. government was doing when he was sent to a private enterprise in Japan).
"In 2013, the documents I disclosed to the media recorded various abuses committed by the NSA, achieved through various technologies. Even employees engaged in daily practical work couldn't know the full extent of these abuses, including system administrators. To discover the NSA's dereliction of duty, you have to actively seek it. And the prerequisite for actively seeking it is that you know these abuses exist."
China's continuous collection, storage, and analysis of the daily communications and online interactions of billions of people require extremely complex mechanisms and equipment. Studying complete and accurate data in this context, interpreting the technical details of China's private communication monitoring, is truly eye-opening and deeply shocking. At first, the magnitude of this system's achievements and audacity left me speechless, almost forgetting that this is a manifestation of authoritarian control, forgetting my anger.
The most basic law of technological progress: what can be done is very likely to be implemented, or may have already been implemented. The U.S. has undoubtedly engaged in actions similar to China's; otherwise, it wouldn't have access to so much information. As I sifted through a vast amount of China-related information, I couldn't help but feel like I was looking in a mirror, seeing the image of the U.S. China's actions against its citizens are well-known, while the U.S. is likely doing the same thing to the entire world, and doing it in secret.
"Stellar Wind" is the darkest secret in this classified report. In fact, it is also the NSA's biggest secret, and that is why the report is assigned an extremely high level of classification. The existence of this program shows that the NSA's mission has changed from "using technology to protect the U.S." to "using technology to control the U.S.," by redefining private internet communications of the populace as signal intelligence.
Our laws typically lag behind technology by at least one generation, but now the protection of communication content is higher than that of metadata, which is incredibly ironic.
"I felt like an idiot, thinking I had the technical prowess to help build this surveillance system, but I had no idea of its true purpose. I felt used, as a member of the intelligence community, and only now do I realize that I was protecting not the nation but the government. I feel thoroughly used. Being in Japan deepened this sense of betrayal" (Snowden deeply doubted what he had believed all along when he accidentally saw classified documents while in Japan).
Since the Industrial Revolution, technologists in academia, industry, the military, and government have made many decisions, often based on "what we can do" rather than "what we should do." Those driving technological progress are less likely to limit its application and use (but I think the question of "what we should do" doesn't exist, because no matter how it's expressed, it's the result of standing in its position and perspective, thinking after maximizing its interests).
Once the government has the ability to collect intelligence everywhere, combined with a system that stores intelligence permanently, they can easily frame any individual or group, as the database will definitely yield evidence (just like when I searched for classified files), and they can definitely pin suitable charges on them.
We buy electronic products and sell our own privacy.
"I was surprised to find that people are very willing to register for these cloud services. They are happy that their photos, videos, music, and e-books can be backed up and accessed through this system, but they never thought: Why are such sophisticated and convenient solutions provided to them for free or at a low cost?" (Certainly, they can sell your data!)
In Dell's view (or that of other large private cloud companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google), the rise of the cloud represents the era of computation. However, conceptually, this is actually a return to the early days of large mainframes: a large number of users relying on a powerful mainframe to process data, and this mainframe is controlled by a few elites.
The terms of service agreements for cloud storage services are increasing every year, with any random version being at least 6,000 words long. When we choose to store data online, we are actually relinquishing ownership of the data. These cloud companies can decide what data to retain for us while deleting any content they deem inappropriate. Unless we keep copies on our own devices or hard drives, the data they delete will disappear forever. If the data becomes controversial or violates the agreement, these companies can unilaterally delete our accounts, rendering us unable to access our own data. However, they retain copies, which means they can hand over the data to law enforcement without our knowledge or consent. In short, only when we own our data can we protect it from intrusion. There is no data that is not protected, but there is no data that belongs to individuals.
"I feel defeated. The two most important things in my life: the nation and the internet, have now been betrayed by the government, and they have betrayed me as well. Now even my health is slipping away from me."
More than terrorism, American politicians fear appearing weak, betraying their own parties, or angering their supporters who donate to them (those interested in government contracts and gaining Middle East oil interests). Political fear derived from fear produces various anti-terrorism actions.
This group of political elites repeatedly uses fear as a rallying cry, not for any specific threat, but to manipulate emotions and turn fear into a permanent danger, thereby legitimizing the government's long-term vigilance actions, which cannot be questioned by the public.
Failing to explicitly assert one's right to privacy is, in fact, relinquishing that right, either to an overstepping government or to so-called private enterprises.
In the end, if you think you haven't done anything shameful and don't care about personal privacy, it's akin to the following behaviors:
1. Not caring about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.
2. Not caring about freedom of the press because you don't like reading.
3. Not caring about freedom of religion because you don't believe in God.
4. Not caring about the freedom of peaceful assembly because you're lazy, don't like crowds, or have social anxiety.
Various freedoms and rights may have no meaning to you today, but that doesn't mean they won't have any meaning tomorrow. What may have no meaning to you could be of great significance to your neighbor, to the protesters I track via phone calls, who are loudly advocating for even a small fraction of the aforementioned freedoms. Meanwhile, my own country is gradually abolishing and dismantling these freedoms.
"I constantly encountered compartments within compartments, warnings within warnings, suites within suites, and programs within programs. This is the essence of the NSA—through design, the left hand hardly knows what the right hand is doing."
The Prism program allows the NSA to regularly collect data from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL, and Apple, including emails, photos, video chats, web browsing history, search engine queries, and all other data stored in their clouds, turning these companies into knowing accomplices.
Prism program: Data collection enforced by internet service providers' servers.
Upstream collection program: Data collected directly by internet infrastructure.
The first three articles of the Constitution require the U.S. government to consist of three equal branches of power, which should balance each other. However, in the digital age, all three branches have failed to protect the privacy of the American people, causing the entire system to stall and go out of control (actually, in the information age, the applicability of those clauses: if it's a physical object, it may indeed have privacy rights, but if information is transmitted to the carrier, it actually has no private attributes).
"A whistleblower is a person who, after experiencing hardship, believes that living within an organization no longer conforms to the principles of the broader society and loyalty to that society, and that the organization should be accountable to society. This person knows that they can't continue to stay in the organization and that the organization can't or won't be abolished. However, restructuring the organization is possible, so they blow the whistle, expose information, and make the organization face pressure from the public."
When decrypting, you must come up with a way to convince journalists that your content is authentic.
Selling secrets to enemies is slightly better than providing them to journalists for free: journalists will make the secrets public, while enemies are less likely to share with allies.
The complexity of the system means that even the people executing the plans may not know how they work.
Monitoring those who monitor others is crucial.
In fact, selling intelligence as an insider now feels like a job, because it's still a way to make money, just with higher risks.
Read, write, and execute are the only three modes; essentially, there is no such thing as deletion, only overwriting (why does copying take so long while deleting is so quick? It's just knowledge hiding the file).
Encryption is the best hope against all forms of surveillance.
NSA employees know that even though the law explicitly states that engaging in any form of surveillance for personal use will result in at least 10 years in prison, not a single person in NSA history has been imprisoned for such a crime. Analysts know the government will never publicly prosecute them because you can't convict someone for abusing a secret system of mass surveillance that you're unwilling to acknowledge exists.
Don't send emails to all sorts of random countries, haha, like Iran, or you might actually get checked when entering the U.S.
Snowden chose Hong Kong as the location to expose secrets, which was quite clever. Firstly, there are minimal restrictions on the internet there. Secondly, the Chinese government would have concerns since Hong Kong has a separate legal system, and taking action against journalists there couldn't be implemented immediately. Also, due to Chinese government control, it could reduce the possibility of unilateral U.S. intervention.
Then, the Hong Kong government requested his extradition to the U.S. So, he tried to escape to Ecuador because he needed to find a country that had strained relations with the U.S. However, after a layover in Russia, he had no choice but to stay there for over six years because Russia cited an expired passport as the reason.
After the release, Snowden's girlfriend was indeed constantly monitored. There were people following her whenever she went out.
Your life has become an open book that can be read at any time, regardless of where, when, or what.
Cameras can indeed be turned on arbitrarily.
2016 was a milestone in the history of technology, becoming the first year since the invention of the internet where encrypted internet traffic surpassed unencrypted traffic (such as HTTPS, hardware with strong encryption by default).
Modifying laws is definitely harder to accomplish than modifying technical standards. As long as legal innovation lags behind technological innovation by a day, there will always be organizations trying to abuse the asymmetry between technology and information for their own benefit.
In 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in the European Union.
In his first 12-minute interview in Hong Kong, he emphasized that it shouldn't be the government deciding if this is good; it should be the public.
In the Hong Kong interview, it's evident that he's not comfortable on camera; he's nervous and uneasy.
XKeyscore is a secret computer system used by the U.S. National Security Agency for searching and analyzing foreign internet data.
In 2020, Snowden received permanent residence in Russia, and in September 2022, he obtained Russian citizenship.

After reading this, I've always known that the Chinese government has been collecting information on everyone, but now I feel even more strongly that traceable text censorship will appear soon. The sign of this will be when governments and alliances begin to lack funds.

Not only in the U.S., but Chinese tech companies unquestionably hand over data to the government. This is inevitable and a prerequisite for tech companies to survive.