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

Bruce Schneier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 039335217X ISBN 13: 9780393352177

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016

"Bruce Schneier...grasps this revolution's true dimensions...Schneier paints a picture of the big-data revolution that is dark, but compelling; one in which the conveniences of our digitized world have devalued privacy." Nature

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 emails 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 you ever mentioning it. The powers that surveil us do more than simply store this information. Corporations use surveillance to manipulate not only the news articles and advertisements we each see, but also the prices we're offered. Governments use surveillance to discriminate, censor, chill free speech, and put people in danger worldwide. And both sides share this information with each other or, even worse, lose it to cybercriminals in huge data breaches. Much of this is voluntary: we cooperate with corporate surveillance because it promises us convenience, and we submit to government surveillance because it promises us protection. The result is a mass surveillance society of our own making. But have we given up more than we've gained? In Data and Goliath, security expert Bruce Schneier offers another path, one that values both security and privacy. He brings his bestseller up-to-date with a new preface covering the latest developments, and then shows us exactly what we can do to reform government surveillance programs, shake up surveillance-based business models, and protect our individual privacy. You'll never look at your phone, your computer, your credit cards or even your car in the same way again.

Review:

"In "Data and Goliath" Bruce Schneier, a computer-security expert, does a fine job of laying out the problems caused by this compulsive collection of personal data...Some recent books on digital privacy have been written by journalists, with an emphasis on sugary narrative instead of original analysis. This one comes from a practitioner, and offers a deep but accessible look at surveillance in the post-Snowden, big-data era." --The Economist

"He [Schneier] is passionate about the subject and he shows exactly why and how it matters. The combination of qualitative analysis and detailed examples is compelling and the conclusions are stark. Surveillance matters, and not just at a theoretical level. Schneier shows how it causes damage even when it's used "properly", and also offers examples of how it can be and is abused. And he is at his best when demolishing the case for mass surveillance from a security perspective: it's here that his expertise really kicks in. His understanding of encryption, cyberattacks and vulnerabilities, and his ability to explain them in a relatively accessible way, is impressive and admirable." --Times Higher Education

"...excellent new book..."

--The Observer

"...important book..."

--New Internationalist

About the Author:

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.