Edward Snowden

The Edward Snowden keynotes let viewers dive into the mesmerizing world of the man responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history.

The 30-year-old Snowden used to be a former technical assistant for the CIA via his work for defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Having worked with the National Security Agency for the last four years as a contractor, Snowden sparked an outrage when he leaked thousands of classified NSA documents to select journalists in 2013.

The Guardian published a series of the leaked documents including the secret court order demanding American phone records from Verizon and the top-secret Prism program using data from Google, Apple and Facebook.

After revealing that he was the one behind the leaks he had to flee from the charges of espionage by the American government so Snowden went to Russia for temporary asylum.