Edward Snowden

Snowden is one of those rare figures who force you to take a side, and I respect that he did not pick the comfortable life that was clearly within reach. Whether you read him as a principled whistleblower or a reckless leaker, the man torched a stable career for a conviction, and the string of peace prizes that followed tells you the world could not simply dismiss the question he raised. For me he is unavoidable in any honest conversation about surveillance, privacy, and the limits of state power in the digital age. A genuinely consequential life.

Name (English)

Edward Snowden

Name (Japanese)

エドワード・スノーデン

Reading

えどわーど・すのーでん

Born

June 21, 1983 (age 43)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Boar

Origin

Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States

Occupation

system administrator / intelligence officer / security guard / whistleblower / dissident

University

Anne Arundel Community College

Awards & achievements

• 2013 Sam Adams Award
• 2013 Fritz Bauer Prize
• 2014 Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize
• 2014 Right Livelihood Award
• 2014 Stuttgart Peace Prize
• 2014 Carl von Ossietzky Medal
• 2013 Whistleblower Prize
• 2015 Bjørnson Prize

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/that_snowden/
• Xhttps://x.com/Snowden
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A8%E3%83%89%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3

Tags

• North Carolina
• system administrator
• intelligence officer
• security guard

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.