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Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World

Bruce Schneier

4.01 · Rating details · 3,320 ratings · 368 reviews

Your cell phone provider tracks your location and knows who’s with you. Your online and in-store purchasing patterns are recorded, and reveal if you're unemployed, sick, or pregnant. Your e-mails and texts expose your intimate and casual friends. Google knows what you’re thinking because it saves your private searches. Facebook can determine your sexual orientation without ...more

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Hardcover, 398 pages

Published March 2nd 2015 by W. W. Norton Company

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Mar 06, 2015 Todd N rated it it was amazing

Birthday present for myself. Bought it at Santa Cruz Bookstore and the cashier scolded me for taking the magnetic anti-theft tracker out of the book before buying it. Savor the irony.

Update: Finished the book on 3/13.

I read this at the same time I was listening to The Snowden Files and No Place To Hide on Audible, so they are all jumbled up in my head. (They are also probably jumbled up with We Are Anonymous and Dataclysm too.) Instead of a review for each, I just have this series of notes -- in ...more

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Apr 01, 2018 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 0-internet, 0-technology

Big Data helps in the indirect way of realizing dystopias.

Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.

A book that is widely scattered and explains all aspects of the precarious situation to illustrate an increasingly threatening dilemma better. In contrast to other non-fiction books on the subject, which place the primary focus on the technical, economic, political or cultural aspect of the volatile situation and thus dilute it in pa ...more

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Apr 05, 2015 Gordon rated it really liked it

Shelves: computers, kindle

If you've never heard of Ghostery or Disconnect, go ahead and look them up. Try out their web browser extensions (you can always easily uninstall them). What you'll notice is that you're being tracked by many companies, some of which you've heard of, but many of them will be unfamiliar. There aren't just a few companies tracking you, but well over a thousand. And it's not just companies that are tracking you, but governments as well (this should already be obvious). What's great about this book ...more

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Sep 22, 2016 Gary Beauregard Bottomley rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I love the topic. I love the details provided in this book. But, to tell a story you need more than a great topic and a bunch of facts. One needs a narrative and an attitude to tie the pieces together. This book lacked the story telling 'je ne sais quoi" (literal: "I don't know what", but figuratively "elusive quality") though he does have the attitude.

I don't think there is any current topic where I could be more interested in than along the lines of the merging of the data that is out there wi I love the topic. I love the details provided in this book. But, to tell a story you need more than a great topic and a bunch of facts. One needs a narrative and an attitude to tie the pieces together. This book lacked the story telling 'je ne sais quoi" (literal: "I don't know what", but figuratively "elusive quality") though he does have the attitude.

I don't think there is any current topic where I could be more interested in than along the lines of the merging of the data that is out there with computers and algorithms, and I would consider Edward Snowden a hero, because what we have learned from him and the potential to do harm (as well as good) with the merging of big data with computers and the power of using context and content that both government and corporations (and even private citizens) can use against us (or for us) as a potential threat to our liberty or a boon to our equality. Complete liberty means no equality, and complete equality means no liberty. There is a balance and books like this can offer a guideline, but it needs the story to tie the pieces together with a narrative of some kind.

I'll give an example, of a book that I just recently read. "Rise of the Machines", by Thomas Rid. He covers many of the same topics that were covered in this book, especially on the part of encryption and PGP (pretty good privacy). At the same time that book always had a theme woven into the story as a whole in which he was tying all the pieces together, and even summarized them in the final chapter for the dense reader like me. This book, "Data and Goliath", doesn't interweave them coherently and therefore made what should have been an incredibly exciting story for me into a dull story with a lot of facts.

My problem with this book is not that it didn't give the listener plenty of details, but it didn't give the listener an easy story to tell so one can, for example, share with colleagues over the water cooler while at work. The values we use to explain the world through science would include: simplicity, accuracy, prediction, fitting in to the web of knowledge, and lastly the ability to explain. In order to explain, one needs a story to put the pieces together this book doesn't offer that. (Galileo had a story to tell as well as plenty of details. Read "Dialogs Concerning Two Chief World Systems", e.g.).

I'm in the minority on this book. It gave me details which I loved, but it lacked a over arcing narrative that I could wrap my mind around. Good fiction needs a story to hook the listener, and non-fiction needs that narrative even more as to not bore. I like all genres of non-fiction except for the boring kind. ...more

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May 15, 2019 Kevin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-sci-techno

Solid intro to the myths/realities of privacy/security in the Age of Information Technology, for the general public by an IT specialist:

The Good:
--In the modern world of complex abstractions (finance, world market, mass media, foreign policy, science & technology, etc.), there is a pressing need for introductions that balance accessibility without sacrificing nuance.
--Schneier combines technical expertise (computer security, cryptography) with a down-to-earth writing style, a gift for the publi ...more

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Mar 24, 2015 Caren rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

Reading this book was deeply unsettling. After Edward Snowden, perhaps none of us is naive about how easily information about any of us can be found, but the author (whom the dust jacket bills as "one of the world's foremost security experts") takes the reader into the belly of the beast, as it were. After the first chapter, I was reeling. I work with a colleague who is extremely careful with her electronic trail. I had always thought maybe she was a bit paranoid. I would blithely think, "oh, I' Reading this book was deeply unsettling. After Edward Snowden, perhaps none of us is naive about how easily information about any of us can be found, but the author (whom the dust jacket bills as "one of the world's foremost security experts") takes the reader into the belly of the beast, as it were. After the first chapter, I was reeling. I work with a colleague who is extremely careful with her electronic trail. I had always thought maybe she was a bit paranoid. I would blithely think, "oh, I'm too boring for anyone to care to track". Ha! We are ALL being tracked. The author says that people often say, "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about". He notes that that patently understates the problem. People change, society changes, when you feel as though there is always someone watching. As he notes on page 32:
"Philosopher Jeremy Bentham conceived of his "panopticon" in the late 1700s as a way to build cheaper prisons. His idea was a prison where every inmate could be surveilled at any time, unawares. The inmate would have no choice but to assume that he was always being watched, and would therefore conform. This idea has been used as a metaphor for mass personal data collection, both on the Internet and off. On the Internet, surveillance is ubiquitous. All of us are being watched, all the time, and that data is being stored forever. This is what an information-age surveillance state looks like, and it's efficient beyond Bentham's wildest dreams."
The last section of the book has chapters with "solutions for government", "solutions for corporations", and "solutions for the rest of us". In the course of the book he details how corporations track us in order to sell us more stuff, while government forces the corporations to share the data, and often to create "back doors" to data that compromise security for everyone. He does , however, discourage fatalism, saying (on page 225):
"There is strength in numbers, and if the public outcry grows, governments and corporations will be forced to respond. We are trying to prevent an authoritarian government like the one portrayed in Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', and a corporate-ruled state like the ones portrayed in countless dystopian cyberpunk science fiction novels. We are nowhere near either of those endpoints, but the train is moving in both those directions, and we need to apply the brakes."
He says we, as a society, have been ready to give up freedom for a sense of security, so stoking our fear has been a way to intrude on our privacy without an outcry. He notes that this is not unique to our own time period. On page 235, he comments:
"The government offers us this deal: if you let us have all of your data, we can protect you from crime and terrorism. It's a rip-off. It doesn't work. And, it overemphasizes group security at the expense of individual security. The bargain Google offers us is similar, and it's similarly out of balance: if you let us have all of your data and give up your privacy, we will show you advertisements you want to see---and we'll throw in free web search, e-mail, and all sorts of other services. Companies like Google and Facebook can only make that bargain when enough of us give up our privacy. The group can only benefit if enough individuals acquiesce."
He goes on to say (page 237):
"The big question is this: how do we design systems that make use of our data collectively to benefit society as a whole, while at the same time protecting people individually?....This is the fundamental issue of the information age. We can solve it, but it will require careful thinking about the specific issues and moral analysis of how different solutions affect our core values."
With 120 pages of bibliographical notes, you could really dig into this topic. Myself, I think I need to let all this settle a bit. As I said, it is creepy and unsettling... ...more

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Mar 05, 2016 Alison rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

There is nothing that has made me more frightened of the prospect of Donald Trump as US President than reading this book. This is not because the book mentions Trump - it is a safe Trump-less read - but because the detailed image Schneier draws of the NSA, and its frenemies Google, Apple and other tech companies (not to mention low-profile security start-ups) offers a truly terrifying secret police state, able not only to know what we are thinking, but also to shape it. Schneier's moderate, chat There is nothing that has made me more frightened of the prospect of Donald Trump as US President than reading this book. This is not because the book mentions Trump - it is a safe Trump-less read - but because the detailed image Schneier draws of the NSA, and its frenemies Google, Apple and other tech companies (not to mention low-profile security start-ups) offers a truly terrifying secret police state, able not only to know what we are thinking, but also to shape it. Schneier's moderate, chatty, factual tone counteracts the dystopian-future content, but of course, this simply reinforces the dawning realisation that we are at the dawn of technology/state/corporate alliances that could fundamentally change how democracy and society work.
The spine of the book is Schneier drawing on various sources - he heavily uses Snowden's leaked info but also records from various court cases, journalistic investigations and his own work (all meticulously footnoted for easy self-research) - to explain how data is collected, stored, traded and used by governments and corporations. The *strength* of the book though - the thing that will make it worth reading long after this info is out of date - is Schneier's clear understanding of *why* this occurs: how mass surveillance is about social control, whether that is exerted to stop us protesting or taking drugs, or to sell us things we don't need. Schneier carefully demolishes the myth that surveillance fights terrorism - devastatingly, he asserts (with footnotes!) that not a single terrorist attack has been prevented through mass surveillance techniques - all pre-emptive arrests have been the result of old-fashioned targeted investigation techniques. This makes sense, he points out - mass surveillance creates a huge amount of signal *noise* in the context of very rare, very secretive crime. If you are looking for a needle in a haystack, the last thing you want to do is pile on a lot more hay.
But mass surveillance works very well for social control. And yes, there is the standard panopticon reference here. But Schneier points out that knowing that everywhere we go, we are captured on camera - that if Trump became president and wanted a list of every person who attended a migrant rights rally last year, and their personal details, and hell, breakfast cereal preferences, this would be a trivial request for the NSA - this changes the way we start to behave. In this context, Schneier even talks about the importance of law breaking in changing stupid laws - with reference to LGBTI rights, marijuana legalisation etc. Even if we could assume that surveillance was only used to enforce perfect compliance with the law, this would stunt our growth as a society, our capacity to adjust and develop.
But even scarier is the trade and exploitation of personal data to interested stakeholders. So, if you make baby formula and you want a list of potential customers, you would pay handsomely for a list of low-income working pregnant women who lack any maternity leave, for example - a key target market. Or maybe a list of "gullible seniors" for legal scam artists? (This exists, and someone was actually prosecuted for selling it, based on browser data obtained legally). Or maybe you want to sell your 16-airbag, bulletproof six-figure car to people who lost loved ones in car accidents?
Schneier's scariest content for me was the swirl of data between commercial exploiters and the government - on the one hand, the NSA could be assumed to have free rein access to Google and Apple metadata - pretty much everything moving through smart phones from GPS to email to your candy crush habit - and on the other, governments sell data to raise cash. Incredibly, the British NHS is contemplating the sale of Brit's medical data, providing a rich resource for all those wanting to identify the sick and vulnerable to sell them things.
Of course, it is at the point that the pull is joined by a push, that we need to be aware of the power of Google et al. What would happen, asks Schneier, if Google suddenly decided only to show "enrol to vote" ads to Democrat voters? Statistically, that may be enough to swing an election. Or, as one real estate search service *did* do, show property ads only for neighborhoods of predominately the same race as the searcher? Or show firearms ads to suicidal people of a particular political, ethnic or cultural group? Or display reproductive services ads only to women from certain demographics?
Because I read neurosciencey stuff as well, one of the synergies which most hit me here was research that shows how influenced we are by the sequencing of information. So women who are reminded that men score better than women on math tests, will do worse in the test than those who weren't. Police who have just heard about a black man shooting a cop are more likely to shoot unarmed black men. What we see online, when we see it, and what follows on from that changes the way we react to situations around us. The power inherent in our mobile phones, our search engines, and our government databases is immense.
The question is, how do we define what we want to do with this technology? The kind of people we want to be?
And, finally, do we really want a world where our lives are totally transparent to those with power, but the workings of that power - the warrants, the algorithms, the extent of the surveillance - are as obscure as blackout curtains. Whose world is this anyway? ...more

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Nov 03, 2015 Rod Hilton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: technology, audiobooks

Data and Goliath is an eye-opening read. I mean, I understand how I'm under constant surveillance due to things like my smartphone or cookies or Facebook, and I understand that the government gets access to a lot of this information via the Snowden leaks, but I guess I never fully connected all the dots enough in a single unified understanding of my world. Bruce Schneier provides it.

Most of the book is somewhat technical, helping the reader understand how data about them is collected and used. I ...more

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Mar 03, 2015 Sara Watson rated it it was amazing

Bruce Schneier covers all the bases, weaving together countless news stories and recent revelations to give us the big-picture view on data and its uses in our times. Pulled together in one place, Schneier illustrates the urgency of finding reasonable solutions to these hidden trade-offs that we’ve largely accepted because we never had much of a choice. And refreshingly, he offers his set of solutions and next steps.

Schneier's solutions—like “incent new business models” for corporations that run ...more

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Mar 25, 2018 David rated it liked it · review of another edition

My feelings about this book are all over the map so I'll present my thoughts in piecemeal fashion.

The author is very bright and knows the material intimately. The first third of the book (corporate data collection) is completely fascinating, I thought I'd finish the book in two days. The last two-thirds of the book read like a policy manual and are a complete slog; I couldn't wait to be done with the book.

The book was written in 2014 but is still quite relevant in 2018 (viz. Facebook in the hea ...more

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Apr 16, 2015 Popup-ch rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, non-fiction

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was expecting a shrill hyperventilating diatribe against pervasive surveillance and insistence on using air-gapped laptops and return to a cash-only economy.

In contrast it's a very reasonable overview of the current state of mass- / targeted surveillance and the current trends in data collection and mining, together with informed guesses about the way this is evolving. He suggests some ways of reducing the impact on individual privacy violations, and mo ...more

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Nov 18, 2017 Angela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, library

Ahhh, it has been TOO LONG, TECH/DIGITAL CIVIL LIBERTIES BOOK SHELF. Oh, how I missed thee. How I have missed thine refreshing icy showers. How inspired I am to finally go full Linux!

So this book is nothing new, if you've listened to The Surveillance State, or read Cory Doctorow, or were paying attention during Ed Snowden's explosive whistleblowing in 2013. I would also recommend Jaron Lanier and Sherry Turkle and the spam book and Richard Stallman, specifically his encyclopedic reasons not to u Ahhh, it has been TOO LONG, TECH/DIGITAL CIVIL LIBERTIES BOOK SHELF. Oh, how I missed thee. How I have missed thine refreshing icy showers. How inspired I am to finally go full Linux!

So this book is nothing new, if you've listened to The Surveillance State, or read Cory Doctorow, or were paying attention during Ed Snowden's explosive whistleblowing in 2013. I would also recommend Jaron Lanier and Sherry Turkle and the spam book and Richard Stallman, specifically his encyclopedic reasons not to use Facebook (the nudge that finally pushed me over into deleting my account).

Anyway, tl;dr: we have every reason to be paranoid, as total, mass surveillance by corporations and most governments is the de facto status quo in a post-9/11 world. We have a giant, automated, big data apparatus designed to know every intimacy of every person all the damn time. Most people don't realize this, and it's sucking the oxygen out of our freedom.

Schneier believes - and I agree with him - that the lazy security nihilism many people express (including some people I know *AHEM* especially younger people, shame on you kids) - anyway, that lazy idea that "why should I worry about [digital overlord]'s invasive privacy settings? ultimately, I have nothing to hide?" is a sign that: people are MASSIVELY underestimating how invasive these digital "services" are, and people are thus MASSIVELY undervaluing their own privacy and their own worth. If it's free, you are the product! Also, why do you want a profit-seeking platform to monetize your social connections so they can better serve you ads?!

Schneier writes clearly and comprehensively; I think this book would actually be a great intro and gift for the digital civil liberties noob in your life. You can give it to them with a copy of Ubuntu (or Kali Linux, haha!) and a burner phone.

Some notes for myself:
- Digital serfdom. Cory Doctorow has been using this term more and more recently, and Schneier gives a great overview of how, indeed, our digital rights and digital society is, indeed, a feudal state. It's impossible to live in modern society while opting out of everything (Google, Facebook/social media, etc), and so what you end up doing is selecting the digital lord you want to be a vassal/serf for. In exchange for tilling their fields (by giving up your data, every single day), they get your ad revenues and you're plugged you into the world economy. Can you imagine getting a job without access to Google? I'm starting to think it's impossible to get a date without having a Facebook account, given the tight integration between it and all the dating apps.
- No opting out. As the Internet of Things grows, we'll have networked devices passively collecting data on everything: our wifi fridge and wifi toaster spying on us, basically. I mean, people at iRobot already have floor plans of your house thanks to your spy Roomba. And End User License Agreements (EULAs) are essentially meaningless legal ass-covering: they're not designed to be read/understood, they're not designed to truly inform and allow consent.
- The interesting, tight coupling between the micro/commercial trade-off of convenience in exchange for privacy ("ok, Google, I'll let you know where I am 24/7 and what my darkest fears are and 90% of my communication, if you just let me have free maps, email, and synced calendars") and the macro/government trade-off between security and freedom. And, of course, how these are false dichotomies meant to entrap us.
- The delicious hypocrisy of tech moguls like Eric Schmidt (Google) and Zuckerberg, who pontificate from on high about living in a post-privacy, radical-transparency world, where good people have "nothing to hide", while they themselves cover their webcams.
- The interesting notes about our data "exhaust" and how we're producing more data, every day in 2017, than we did in all of human history before ~2012 or something. And how Charles Stross calls this event horizon the "end of prehistory"; after this point, all of human experience and data will become retrievable (e.g. kids growing up publicly on social media, etc).

I have MANY MORE THOUGHTS and pontifications of my own on the mindless way we use social media and our networked computrons these days, but I will pause my sermon for now. Suffice to say: for the love of God, at least put a sticker over your webcam! ...more

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Dec 01, 2016 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, 2016

Well, this sure was eye-opening and worrisome. I read it for school, and I'll be interested to see what everyone thinks. Mostly I came out of this feeling like trying to protect my privacy is a losing battle. The author doesn't suggest that, and he has some helpful hints at the end of the book, but the problems he talks about still feel overwhelming.
The book has over 100 pages of references, and I'm a little cranky about whatever citation style he used. Not very user-friendly.
A lot of his sol ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Jimmy Ele rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an important book that everyone should read. If you want to understand the ubiquity of mass surveillance, I highly recommend this book.

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Nov 27, 2018 Nick Grasse rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

After reading Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier, I gained a whole new perspective on the digital world that surrounds us. Previously, I was aware that companies and corporations may view some of your data on websites and social media because of the terms and conditions listed on their websites, but I didn’t fully realize the extent of surveillance that is placed upon us, usually without most people aware.
Privacy is an essential human right, and it is necessary in the world we live in today. Un After reading Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier, I gained a whole new perspective on the digital world that surrounds us. Previously, I was aware that companies and corporations may view some of your data on websites and social media because of the terms and conditions listed on their websites, but I didn’t fully realize the extent of surveillance that is placed upon us, usually without most people aware.
Privacy is an essential human right, and it is necessary in the world we live in today. Unfortunately, it seems that the advancements in technology and everyday things we interact with are coming with the expense of privacy. The smartphones that everyone has in their pockets can be used by corporations and governments to track internet search history, text messages, and constantly updates your location as you move around. Nothing in life can really be free, and this is even more evident with Google and other corporations. When mentioning these so called “free services”, Schneier explains that, “If something is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product” (Schneier 43). By providing services at no charge, you allow Google to have access to all of your search data and Google Drive documents, and Google can also mine data for targeted advertising purposes. Although it is nice to enjoy these sites for no initial charge, you are actually paying in a different way. Companies need to make the users fully aware of what their data is used for, and give easy ways for users to opt out of data collection.
The author does a fantastic job of explaining facts in an easy to interpret way, and with providing clear details to convey ideas to the reader. Schneier frequently uses illustration and thoroughly explains his arguments with lots of explanations and stories. He also uses statistics such as, “Estimates put the current number of Internet-connected devices at 10 billion” (Schneier) to point out the magnitude of devices that can have a form of surveillance. The only flaw is that an average person can only do so much to protect their privacy. Later in the book, he explains different ways laws could be changed to prevent this, however this would take a tremendous amount of support and probably wouldn’t be able to happen immediately. However, he does recommend various ways to protect privacy and how to opt out of services you don’t want to collect data.
I truly enjoyed reading this book because I learned so many things that I had not before. The author gives many examples and makes his points relevant to anyone. An extraordinary amount of data is extracted from you that it Google probably knows you better than you know yourself. Even though there is nothing that I am worried about others knowing, it is unnecessary for corporations to collect the amount of data that they are currently collecting. Schneier effectively conveyed his message that big data collection should be minimized and that less privacy equates to less freedom in the long run.
...more

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Mar 21, 2015 Anabelle Bernard Fournier rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

If you’d asked me a year ago, “do you worry about government surveillance?”, I would have said no. But today, my answer would be an empathic YES.

The scary part is that, like most Canadians, I hadn’t worried about that kind of surveillance until the current debate around C-51. (If you don’t know what that is, check it out here.) This terrifying bill would, among many other things, make it illegal to talk positively of terrorism on the internet. Just look at the news in Canada on any day lately, a ...more

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Dec 21, 2020 Bertine marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: rvw-bookclub, recommened-to-me

I have already read one really boring book about technology this year. I don't need to add a second one. ...more

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Aug 27, 2018 Karel Baloun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Schneier brilliance and razor sharp thinking are perfectly apparent in this expertly crafted, concise, practical book. Every assertion is supported by copious endnotes, in a format every non-fiction book should immediately emulate — it powerfully encourages deeper investigation and openness. Refreshingly, more that a full third of the book is dedicated to Solutions. “We need to reaffirm our support for a free, open, and global Internet, and then work to ensure its continued existence.” (p221)

And ...more

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Jul 02, 2018 Chad Warner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: security-conscious, privacy-conscious

Shelves: non-fiction, cybersecurity

This book is more about politics than practical tips for protecting yourself online. Schneier, a recognized voice in security and privacy, talks about "the use and misuse of our personal data." I was expecting more of the book to be like Chapter 15, "Solutions for the Rest of Us," with practical tips for protecting your privacy online.

Schneier explains the political and societal ramifications of mass surveillance, then calls for legal reform to eliminate mass surveillance and use only targeted s ...more

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Jan 17, 2016 Libby Bishop rated it it was amazing

I work with data, and I am hopeful about the power of data to address human needs, especially in health care. But I am even more fearful that current abuses of personal data and privacy, with the inevitable backlash, will undermine these possibilities.

Schneiner's book, though not short, is the best, briefest, most readable summary of key debates and solutions in this domain. If I could give it six stars, I would.

This is how he presents the key question:
“How do we design systems that make use of I work with data, and I am hopeful about the power of data to address human needs, especially in health care. But I am even more fearful that current abuses of personal data and privacy, with the inevitable backlash, will undermine these possibilities.

Schneiner's book, though not short, is the best, briefest, most readable summary of key debates and solutions in this domain. If I could give it six stars, I would.

This is how he presents the key question:
“How do we design systems that make use of our data collectively to benefit society as a whole, while at the same time protecting people individually?…This is it: this is the fundamental issue of the information age.”

The first chapters describe in detail (but not too technically) the kinds of data surveillance and collection that is routine now. There are systems that can send a blind call to a phone, no ring. It forces the phone to return a frequency, allowing the sender to learn the location of that phone to one meter.

He takes on some key arguments, such as "I have nothing to hide," saying privacy is an essential human need, it is not about hiding. He also challenges the argument that we can just "opt out" and not use social media. Not using any one tool may be an option, but some minimal engagement with these tools is now essential for one's career and social life.

He also disagrees that data collection does no harm if the data are not looked at. Surveillance is harmful, specifically mass, non-targeted surveillance, because of the chilling effect it has on human behaviour.

The book covers corporate and government surveillance, and their intersection in what he calls the "public-private surveillance partnership" (yes, the parallel with military-industrial complex is deliberate).

There are gems of examples, statistics and vocabulary here. He says there should be basic principles for personal data: Collect minimal data, keep data for a minimum time, and store it securely. In German, there is one word that captures all those principles:
Datensparsamkeit. 70% of the US govt intelligence budget is spent on purchases from private firms-data, equipment, services, etc.

He is also clear about what kind of right privacy is. "The more fundamental problem is the conception of privacy as something that should be subjected to commerce in this way. Privacy needs to be a fundamental right, not a property right."

Because I am an American living in Europe, I took note of his comments on privacy and data protection in the US vs the EU. We are at unique moment in the relationship between the US and the EU- both want harmonisation of data laws, mostly to make life easier for business. The debate could tip toward the US with its more permissive law, or toward the EU's more restrictive legal regime. He hopes the EU regime wins, and I agree with him. The EU's approach is not perfect, but its foundation is privacy as a fundamental right, and that is something we cannot give up. ...more

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Oct 25, 2018 Bryan Geurkink rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In an increasingly digital-oriented world, the lines of privacy and security have become blurred. With this rise in digital technology, computers constantly produce data about people's social lives, interests, physical well-being, and more. The shocking fact about it: Governments and corporations use this data to survey people's lives. Bruce Schneier expands on this reality and explains how a mass surveillance society has taken over our world. Schneier discusses what all is at stake, including ...more

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Sep 07, 2015 Brian Palmer rated it it was amazing

Clear prose and a fairly comprehensive overview of the state of surveillance in a post-Snowden world. One very annoying issue, however: the book uses unnumbered endnotes, which I had not run into before. If you see a claim on page 10 that you want to check on, you flip to the notes at the back, go to the notes for page 10, and see if any of the notes are relevant to what you're checking on. With no numbered markings visible, this seems to encourage skepticism, but its novelty (at least to me) wa Clear prose and a fairly comprehensive overview of the state of surveillance in a post-Snowden world. One very annoying issue, however: the book uses unnumbered endnotes, which I had not run into before. If you see a claim on page 10 that you want to check on, you flip to the notes at the back, go to the notes for page 10, and see if any of the notes are relevant to what you're checking on. With no numbered markings visible, this seems to encourage skepticism, but its novelty (at least to me) was disconcerting at first.

A lot of what Schneier writes about is stuff that I follow fairly closely; I think there were some areas he drastically oversimplified, but in a way that omitted complications rather than being inaccurate. So, in a sense, this is someone whom I trust to know what's going on, and will press this on people who want an overview. But, this is not a philosophical book; Schneier paints with a broad brush rather than get into the subtle intricacies of what is 'proper' for government powers. In most chapters, he treats government as a single entity, although in a few cases he does discuss regulatory oversight as distinct from the day to day execution of government powers.

A lot of the discussion in this book is based on data coming from Snowden revelations; Schneier comes across as very much a Snowden fan, which may color some of the parts of the book that don't describe 'what' but about 'how to react'. I share a large part of his world view, but think that it's the part dealing with the government and the philosophy of the legitimate powers of government falls into the oversimplified section. One important case that perhaps was overly oversimplified: the lavabits case, where a small company ("lavabits") provided encrypted email service for Snowden (among others). The court documents show a lot of architectural issues and interplay with the court (among other things, the final resolution came down to whether the government would pay the developer to make some changes to the code).

But some of the other simplifications are factually inaccurate. For example, he identifies "PageRank" as being a trade secret by Google. Google's entire search ranking as a whole is treated as a trade secret; however, pagerank is just one component of it, and itself is both patented and papers on it have been published.

This is very worth reading, but don't take it as a final document on anything. ...more

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Oct 24, 2018 Sherine Van rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For someone who doesn't necessarily enjoy nonfiction, this is still a book I would recommend. It is a fast read and full of surprising facts most of us never thought about. Bruce Schneider brilliantly explains the dangers we face in this new technological era of living online. We may believe that every time we delete something or erase it then it is permanent, but this book opens our eyes to the reality of how every keystroke tells a story of who we are and the traces never disappear. Nothing yo ...more

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Dec 06, 2015 Vicky Hunt rated it really liked it

Shelves: vicky-s-favorites

Very clearly written facts on our data, the 'exhaust' of the information age. Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“We kill people based on metadata.”
“If something is free, you’re not the customer; you’re the product.”
"Ubiquitous mass surveillance is the enemy of democracy, liberty, freedom, and progress."
“we tend to focus on rare and spectacular threats and ignore the more frequent and pedestrian ones. So we fear flying more than driving, even though the former is much safer. Or we fear ...more

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May 05, 2016 Laci rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'd recommend this book to anyone who uses (or comes in contact with) any electronic devices.
It explains, in clear and layman's terms, how data about us is collected online and off, by both governments and corporations, and how it's used to spy on us, sell us stuff, violate our privacy or give us actually useful services that provide great value.

One of the best things about this book is that while the author openly advocates for the need of privacy and security in our everyday lives, he doesn' ...more

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Dec 05, 2016 Avani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The first half of this book is akin to reading a non-stop barrage of the scariest EFF bulletins, and the second half is a slightly thin but very well written set of reassuring suggestions and political levers to address privacy while still maintaining a positive relationship with national security.

My favorite new to me idea was the analogy between the debate between Hobbes's benevolent dictators and Locke's social contract with the debate over the trust policies in corporate data. Other fun fac ...more

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Dec 22, 2015 Svetlana rated it really liked it

Quite a few things from the book I've already known about from other sources but when brought together in their totality in one place the extent of the data misuse, surveillance and all those business models based on collecting as much user data as possible make a very grave impression. This book is a good wake-up call and raises timely and pertinent questions about security, privacy and their value and interactions.
It focuses more on the warnings and the negative effects of collecting all the d ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Dan rated it liked it

Bruce Schneier is a great expert on digital privacy, security and their effects on society.

I started this book in 2015, set it aside (the tempo wasn't too good) for a while and finished in 2017. Pity, as I should have done it in one go. Quite a bit of the material is already slightly obsolete in 2017, with Privacy Shield, Trump, GDPR, ePrivacy and other aspects. I agree with Bruce's ideas. I approve that he tries to be constructive and give solutions. I wish that the world could move past the cu ...more

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Feb 04, 2018 Kerem rated it really liked it

After Snowden's revelations about NSA, everyone started to wonder about the extent and details of the mass surveillance. This book gives a very good account of mass surveillance, not only by governments but also by corporations, how these would affect all of us (from privacy to liberty), and what can done about it. I particularly enjoyed the parts where Schneier discussed the impacts on our wellbeing/psychology/personality as well as the whole society and human progress. The book is written quit ...more

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Aug 15, 2015 Jack Oughton rated it really liked it

In summary...

Data mining = The Panopticon

Privacy situation = rapidly worsening as data mining technology improves

Very compelling reading - may also inspire paranoia and/or panic!

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About Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier

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Bruce Schneier is "one of the world's foremost security experts" (Wired) and the best-selling author of thirteen books. He speaks and writes regularly for major media venues, and his newsletter and blog reach more than 250,000 people worldwide. He is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and the CTO of Resilient Systems, Inc. ...more