Photo: Free Software Foundation / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
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.
Overview
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former United States National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, he attended a community college and later enrolled in a master's programme at the University of Liverpool without finishing it.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- 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 42)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Boar
- Origin
- Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- system administrator / intelligence officer / security guard / whistleblower / dissident
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- 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
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.