Edward Snowden was born in North Carolina on June 21, 1983, and he grew up in Elizabeth City. His mother works for the federal court in Baltimore as chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology. Snowden's father, a former Coast Guard officer. than Snowden dropped out of high school and studied computers at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland , later earning a GED. Between his stints at community college, Snowden spent four months in the Army Reserves in special forces training. According to Army sources, he did not complete any training, and Snowden has said that he was discharged after he broke his legs in an accident.
Snowden began noticing government programs involving the NSA spying on American citizens via phone calls and internet use. Before long, leaving his "very comfortable life" in May 2013, Snowden began copying top secret NSA documents while at work, building a dossier on practices that he found invasive and disturbing. Washington Times released Snowden's leaked information on PRISM, an NSA program that allows real-time information collection, in this case, solely information on American citizens. finally a flood of information followed, and the American people, the international community and the U.S. government have since been scrambling to either hear more about it or have Snowden arrested.