Data and Goliath

March 16, 2015
Security technologist Schneier (Schneier on Security) eloquently limns the challenges of maintaining privacy in the Internet age, and offers some thoughtful proposals to preserve individual freedom without compromising national security. Even readers well versed in the issues are likely to be shocked by some instances of technological intrusions, such as when a school district near Philadelphia lent high school students laptops installed with highly invasive spyware. Schneier plausibly makes the case that the powerful algorithms of companies such as Facebook could be used to actually manipulate American elections. The book also notes the psychological aspects of the loss of control of one's data. For example, for most of human history "interactions and conversations have been ephemeral," and the indefinite preservation of online interactions has social and emotional repercussions for which society is unprepared. Schneier may be accused by some of minimizing the threat from terrorism, however, as when he dismisses terrorists as no more of a danger than organized crime, an analogy that weakens the overall strength of his case.

August 1, 2015

Analyzes how tracking metadata and user profiles in the networked age can be employed for control. (LJ 6/15/15)

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2015
Security technologist, commentator, and popular author Schneier was one of the first to analyze the documentation of NSA surveillance practices leaked by Edward Snowden. What he discovered fueled his mission to zap our complacency regarding ubiquitous mass surveillance. In this mind-blowing expose, backed by 130 pages of revelatory notes, Schneier reveals exactly how all the information generated by our smartphones and computers regarding our exact location, communications, financial and medical transactions, everything we read in digital form, and every Google search is captured, stored, and traded. He elucidates the difference between data and metadata (an email's content is data; all records pertaining to the sender, recipient, and routing are metadata), and explains how metadata is used to track our activities, interests, and concerns. With meticulously researched details and high-velocity prose, he outs the federal government's intrusive data mining, the immensely profitable big-data industry, and the hidden collusion between them. Schneier convincingly argues that our privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect and states that constant surveillance is too high a price to pay for electronic convenience. By matching jolting disclosures of alarming realities with lucid guiding principles and policy recommendations for forging new surveillance laws and regulations, Schneier has created an invaluable and empowering call to awareness and action.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2015
A jeremiad suggesting our addiction to data may have made privacy obsolete.Prolific technological writer Schneier (Fellow/Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School; Carry On: Sound Advice from Schneier on Security, 2013, etc.) clearly examines how technology has transformed every interaction, noting how our intimate communications are now "saved in ways we have no control over." He suggests that most Americans remain unconcerned about the relationship between data and surveillance, due to the attraction of "free" products like Gmail. He focuses on the social costs of surveillance, which "puts us at risk of abuses by those in power...exacerbated by the fact that we are generating so much data and storing it indefinitely." He also argues that this "pervasive mass surveillance" will inevitably chill progressive movements-e.g., gay rights and cannabis decriminalization. The problem is more sprawling than most realize: Edward Snowden's revelations clarified "how much the NSA relies on US corporations to eavesdrop on the Internet," and corporations are using such technologies for their own ends. Yet both the NSA and corporations are blithe about how they treat the fruits of this nonstop spying. "From the military's perspective," writes the author, "it's not surveillance until a human being looks at the data." Such strange pronouncements about the common good are hard to counter, since whistleblowers such as Snowden are prohibited from explaining their actions in court. Schneier argues that all this invasion of privacy is unlikely to succeed in its alleged goal: "Even highly accurate terrorism prediction systems will be so flooded with false alarms that they will be useless." He concludes this grim catalog of privacy erosion with a set of prescriptions for governments, corporations and "the rest of us," advocating a mix of legal framework, incentives for fairer business models and a more realistic understanding of the current moment's potential for harm. An accessible, detailed look at a disturbing aspect of contemporary life.

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Starred review from June 15, 2015

Schneier, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, has written an exceptionally readable yet thoroughly chilling book about the dangers of the ubiquitous mass surveillance we face thanks to modern life. While the author focuses on the United States, the rest of the world is largely capable of nearly the same levels of surveillance thanks to the openness of the Internet and the availability of cell phones. Schneier describes the types of data being collected about us, stemming from our interactions, activities, purchases, and where we go. As he competently explains, this "metadata" provides those collecting it with the entire framework of our existence: who we converse with and the duration of the conversation, the things we read (especially electronically), and what we buy. Corporations use this data to deliver targeted advertising and sell our information to other corporations at a large profit. Governments employ the data to map our interactions and otherwise infiltrate our privacy. As Schneier helps us understand the issues, he makes the case that "Ubiquitous mass surveillance is the enemy of democracy, liberty, freedom, and progress." Though there are few signs of change in corporate and government surveillance practices, Schneier devotes a chapter to practical solutions we can use to limit how we are tracked, information about how other countries approach privacy, and a set of potential principles we could adopt. VERDICT This timely, significant, and engaging book will appeal to citizens and noncitizens alike, to those who have ever used credit or debit cards to make purchases, who have browsed the Internet, who use email, who make purchases online...the list goes on. An essential book for almost everyone.--Candice Kail, Columbia Univ. Libs., New York

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.