Last Updated on December 6, 2022 by
Edward Snowden is a former computer intelligence consultant. Snowden is best known for leaking classified information from the NSA in 2013. He was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has revealed many global surveillance programs which have been run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance. There is no news to now that Snowden is one of the most intelligent people alive. As of 2023, Edward Snowden’s net worth is estimated to be roughly $500 thousand. Read the article to learn about Edward Snowden Edward Snowden’s net worth, bio, family, and career.
Quick Bio:
Age: 40 as of 2023
Born: June 21, 1983
Country of Origin: United States of America
Source of Wealth: Former Computer Intelligence Consultant.
Early Life:

Edward Joseph Snowden was born on the 21st of June, 1983, in North Carolina.
His grandfather was a rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard. He was with the FBI and was at the Pentagon in 2001. His father was an officer in the Coast Guard, and his mother was a clerk at the U.S District Court for the District of Maryland. His sister was a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center.
In 2001, his parents divorced. Snowden scored above 145 on two IQ tests.
Relationship:
Lindsay Mills (born February 20, 1985) is an American acrobat and blogger. She came to international attention as the partner of Edward Snowden in 2013 at the time of the global surveillance disclosures. Mills left the United States to join Snowden in exile in Moscow by October 2014. They married in 2017.
The career of Edward Snowden:
Snowden received a job at the Central Intelligence Agency in 2006. He then was stationed with a diplomatic cover in Geneva. Snowden discovered the surveillance system. He went on to work for another company called Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked for three months. He started to look more into the top-secret files of the “NSA” while he was working at Booz Allen.
After he was done collecting the secret documents, he suffered from epilepsy. He arranged a meeting with a journalist from The Guardian.
In 2013, the information was presented to the whole world. The secret information was gathered through PRISM, which is a program of the NSA. The world was shocked, and NSA went bitter as he kept addressing the media from Hong Kong. He later moved out of Hong Kong and went to Russia. He was stranded due to his passport issues. The Russian government allowed him to stay in the country. During this time, Americans considered him to be a hero. And came up with a petition to free him of all the charges. He continued to stay in Russia until Barack Obama asked the agencies to look into the case. In 2013, he claimed that he didn’t have the NSA documents with him anymore.
Highlights:
Here are some of the best highlights of Edward Snowden’s career:
- Leaked highly classified information (2013)
- Freedom of the Press Foundation (2016)
Criminal charges:
On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Snowden. By charging him with three felonies: theft of government property and two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 (18 U. S. C. Sect. 792 et. seq.; Publ. L. 65-24) through unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.
Specifically, the charges filed in the Criminal Complaint were:
- 18 U.S.C. 641 Theft of Government Property.
- 18 U.S.C. 793(d) Unauthorized Communication of National Defense Information.
- 18 U.S.C. 798(a)(3) Willful Communicating Classified Intelligence Information to an Unauthorized Person.
Each of the three charges carries a maximum possible prison term of ten years. The criminal complaint was initially secret but unsealed a week later.
Civil lawsuit:
On September 17, 2019, the United States filed a lawsuit, Civil Action No. 1:19-cv-1197-LO-TCB, against Snowden for alleged violations of non-disclosure agreements with the CIA and NSA. The two-count civil complaint alleged that Snowden had violated prepublication obligations related to publishing his memoir Permanent Record. The complaint listed the publishers Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC d.b.a. Henry Holt and Company, and Holtzbrink as relief defendants, The Hon. Liam O’Grady, a judge in the Alexandria Division of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, found for the United States (Plaintiff) by summary judgment on both counts of the action. The judgment also found that Snowden paid speaker honorariums totaling $1.03 million for a series of 56 speeches delivered by video link.
CIA & Edward Snowden
In Geneva, Switzerland, when he was in charge of upholding network security encryption, the CIA placed Snowden under military protection in March 2007. In his account of his time working for the CIA in Geneva, Snowden said that the agency purposefully intoxicated a Swiss banker and pushed him to drive home. According to Snowden, a CIA agent offered to assist in return for the banker turning informant after the latter was pulled over for driving under the influence.
NSA and Edward Snowden
Following his March 2007 appointment as a mechanic to the Geneva CIA station, Snowden’s decision to provide NSA documents came slowly. Later, Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for The Guardian, and Snowden exchanged messages.
When the first news stories based on the hacked emails appeared, Snowden had already flown to Bangkok, where he was residing. Within months, records were acquired and made public by media outlets, prominently The Times (Britain), Der Spiegel, and others (Germany).
Favorite Quotes from Edward Snowden:
“America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.”
“I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.”
3 powerful lessons from Edward Snowden:
Injustice:
Every person remembers some moment in their life. Where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away. Because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating.
You’re Being Watched:
Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you are being watched and recorded.
Our Society:
We’re losing our way as a society. If we don’t stand up if we don’t say what we think those rights should be. And if we don’t protect them, we will very soon find out that we do not have them.
Edward Snowden’s Net Worth:

Edward Snowden is a computer security consultant. Snowden is best known for copying and leaking highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013. During his time, he was in Central Intelligence Agency. He is super intelligent, and all the information was revealed globally, which was run by the NSA. As of 2023, Edward Snowden’s net worth is estimated to be roughly $500 thousand.
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FAQs
PRISM was publicly revealed when classified documents about the program were leaked to journalists of The Washington Post and The Guardian by Edward Snowden – at the time an NSA contractor – during a visit to Hong Kong.
The book describes Snowden’s childhood as well as his tenure at the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and his motivations for the leaking of highly classified information in 2013 that revealed global surveillance programs.