Means of Control

January 1, 2024
A revealing examination of how government and corporate collaborations have eroded our privacy. Over the last two decades, the data trails we all create every day have been followed with increasing sophistication by big business and government authorities, who now often work together. Unless we take unusual measures to protect ourselves, both our online and offline behavior is thoroughly recorded by data-harvesters. Not only surfing the internet, but simply walking or driving from place to place while carrying a smartphone can expose us to detailed tracking. The collection of such data is immensely useful to advertisers interested in understanding and exploiting consumer preferences; it's also tempting to government agencies seeking to deliver public services more efficiently and managing ostensible security threats. As investigative reporter Tau explains in this startling book, the result is that our privacy is routinely and profoundly compromised, with threats to civil liberties accelerating at an alarming pace. The author argues persuasively that the U.S. is "trending discomfortingly in the same general direction" as authoritarian China, where state authorities now exercise powers that rival those imagined by Orwell. Tau's explanations of how surveillance techniques have evolved in the 21st century in response to the trauma of 9/11--and how they might yet be put to use in ordinary circumstance--are exceptionally clear and unsettling. He rightly points out that the special vulnerability of racial and religious minorities to surveillance and harassment has already been demonstrated. The author also compellingly shows why governments are attracted to "big data" and how difficult it will be to balance its legitimate use by government powers with concerns about the protection of civil liberties. This timely book carries a crucial message about the stakes involved in government-corporate partnerships. A fascinating, sometimes terrifying examination of the decline of privacy in the digital age.

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Starred review from February 12, 2024
Journalist Tau debuts with a chilling chronicle of how data collection efforts by corporate and government entities have created a “digital panopticon.” In the weeks after 9/11, data broker Acxiom realized the information it collected on credit card purchases and places of residence, intended to inform targeted advertising, could also be used to recreate the movements of the attackers. The company teamed up with the U.S. government, kickstarting the latter’s attempts to build up its own data mining efforts, with help from private contractors. Tau offers novelistic accounts of this and other major milestones in the erosion of data privacy. For instance, he explains that when National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency analyst Katie Zezima mapped calls for help on Twitter to pinpoint areas in peril following the 2011 earthquake in Japan, she led one of the first government initiatives to draw “actionable information” from social media, raising legal questions that bureaucrats swept aside after realizing the data’s utility. Other stories are even more alarming, such as the use of social media by police in Ferguson, Mo., to monitor racial justice protestors in 2014 and the NSA’s breaking into Google’s network despite the company’s compliance with government investigations. Filled with shocking revelations and first-rate reporting, this will have readers thinking twice before they post. Agent: Eric Lupfer, UTA.