Today, whether it’s banks, governments, schools, or businesses, they all store data digitally. Keeping our personal details off the internet is nearly impossible. While it’s difficult to avoid having some personal information online, readers can take steps to secure it from prying eyes. This guide provides common-sense tips about how to avoid online theft and the mining of data by advertisers and others. In easy-to-follow steps, readers will also learn how to safeguard their computers and other digital devices. With this guide, readers can keep their private info private.
Although most Canadians are familiar with surveillance cameras and airport security, relatively few are aware of the extent to which the potential for surveillance is now embedded in virtually every aspect of our lives. We cannot walk down a city street, register for a class, pay with a credit card, hop on an airplane, or make a telephone call without data being captured and processed. Where does such information go? Who makes use of it, and for what purpose? Is the loss of control over our personal information merely the price we pay for using social media and other forms of electronic communication, or should we be wary of systems that make us visible—and thus vulnerable—to others as never before? The work of a multidisciplinary research team, Transparent Lives explains why and how surveillance is expanding—mostly unchecked—into every facet of our lives. Through an investigation of the major ways in which both government and private sector organizations gather, monitor, analyze, and share information about ordinary citizens, the volume identifies nine key trends in the processing of personal data that together raise urgent questions of privacy and social justice. Intended not only to inform but to make a difference, the volume is deliberately aimed at a broad audience, including legislators and policymakers, journalists, civil liberties groups, educators, and, above all, the reading public. http://surveillanceincanada.org/
Why has punditry lately overtaken news? Why do lies seem to linger so long in the cultural subconscious even after they’ve been thoroughly discredited? And why, when more people than ever before are documenting the truth with laptops and digital cameras, does fact-free spin and propaganda seem to work so well? True Enough explores leading controversies of national politics, foreign affairs, science, and business, explaining how Americans have begun to organize themselves into echo chambers that harbor diametrically different facts—not merely opinions—from those of the larger culture.
“Bruce Schneier’s amazing book is the best overview of privacy and security ever written.”—Clay Shirky 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 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.
The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, and freely available to read online. This book investigates the profound effects 21st century digital technology is having on our individual and collective lives and seeks to confront the realities of a new digital age.
While other books in the field focus on specific aspects of privacy or how to avoid invasions, David H. Holtzman--a master technologist, internet pioneer, security analyst, and former military codebreaker--presents a comprehensive insider's exposé of the world of invasive technology, who's using it, and how our privacy is at risk. Holtzman starts out by categorizing privacy violations into "The 7 Sins Against Privacy" and then goes on to explain in compelling and easy to understand language exactly how privacy is being eroded in every aspect of our lives. Holtzman vividly reveals actual invasions and the dangers associated with the loss of privacy, and he takes a realistic look at the trade offs between privacy and such vital issues as security, rights, and economic development. Praise for Privacy Lost "Whether we know it or not, we have all become citizens of the Digital Age. As such we need to take responsibility for our conduct, our safety, and our privacy. David Holtzman is deeply knowledgeable about the industry and passionate about the issues. Regardless of your political views, you will come away from this book better equipped to meet the challenges before us all." --Geoffrey A. Moore, author, Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution "Holtzman has drafted a blueprint all citizens of this great land ought to read if they desire to understand what privacy truly means, why it is important to both their everyday life as well as to their understanding of what it really means to be free, and what they can do to salvage what little privacy is left them. Privacy Lost needs to be readily available on the desks of all concerned citizens--heavily dog-eared and underlined." --Bob Barr, practicing attorney and former Member of theUnited States House of Representatives
The whirlwind of social media, online dating, and mobile apps can make life a dream—or a nightmare. For every trustworthy website, there are countless jerks, bullies, and scam artists who want to harvest your personal information for their own purposes. But you can fight back, right now. In The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy, award-winning author and investigative journalist Violet Blue shows you how women are targeted online and how to keep yourself safe. Blue’s practical, user-friendly advice will teach you how to: –Delete personal content from websites –Use website and browser privacy controls effectively –Recover from and prevent identity theft –Figure out where the law protects you—and where it doesn’t –Set up safe online profiles –Remove yourself from people-finder websites Even if your privacy has already been compromised, don’t panic. It’s not too late to take control. Let The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy help you cut through the confusion and start protecting your online life.
This is a book about what privacy is and why it matters. Governments and companies keep telling us that Privacy is Dead, but they are wrong. Privacy is about more than just whether our information is collected. It's about human and social power in our digital society. And in that society, that's pretty much everything we do, from GPS mapping to texting to voting to treating disease. We need to realize that privacy is up for grabs, and we need to craft rules to protect our hard-won, but fragile human values like identity, freedom, consumer protection, and trust.
Going beyond current books on privacy and security, this book proposes specific solutions to public policy issues pertaining to online privacy and security. Requiring no technical or legal expertise, it provides a practical framework to address ethical and legal issues. The authors explore the well-established connection between social norms, privacy, security, and technological structure. They also discuss how rapid technological developments have created novel situations that lack relevant norms and present ways to develop these norms for protecting informational privacy and ensuring sufficient information security.
