When he was still an employee and subcontractor of the National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) leaked highly confidential information in 2013.

His unauthorized disclosures revealed a variety of global surveillance initiatives, many of which were carried out by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the aid of telecommunications firms and European governments, and they sparked a cultural discussion about individual privacy and national security.

In 2013, Snowden was employed by an NSA contractor named Booz Allen Hamilton after previously worked for Dell and the CIA.

The programs he was working on gradually lost his interest, and Snowden claims he tried to express his ethical concerns through internal channels but was ignored. After quitting his work at an NSA site in Hawaii on May 20, 2013, Snowden travelled to Hong Kong.

In early June, he gave thousands of top-secret NSA papers to the journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill.

After articles based on the information appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other publications, Snowden gained worldwide prominence.

In addition, Snowden leveled serious accusations against the GCSB, exposing their domestic spying on New Zealanders and espionage activities while John Key was prime minister.

How Many Languages Does Edward Snowden Speak?

English is Edward Snowden’s primary language of fluency. According to RIA Novosti, Edward Snowden acknowledged that he struggled with his attempts to learn Russian.

During his address at the New Knowledge marathon, he discussed this.