Cyber Privacy

Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care

April Falcon Doss

• Publisher: BenBella Books
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781950665532
• Subtopic: 21st Century History
• Index: History

"Chilling, eye-opening, and timely, Cyber Privacy makes a strong case for the urgent need to reform the laws and policies that protect our personal data. If your reaction to that statement is to shrug your shoulders, think again. As April Falcon Doss expertly explains, data tracking is a real problem that affects every single one of us on a daily basis." —General Michael V. Hayden, USAF, Ret., former Director of CIA and NSA and former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence

You're being tracked.

Amazon, Google, Facebook, governments. No matter who we are or where we go, someone is collecting our data: to profile us, target us, assess us; to predict our behavior and analyze our attitudes; to influence the things we do and buy—even to impact our vote.

If this makes you uneasy, it should.

We live in an era of unprecedented data aggregation, and it's never been more difficult to navigate the trade-offs between individual privacy, personal convenience, national security, and corporate profits. Technology is evolving quickly, while laws and policies are changing slowly.

You shouldn't have to be a privacy expert to understand what happens to your data.

April Falcon Doss, a privacy expert and former NSA and Senate lawyer, has seen this imbalance in action. She wants to empower individuals and see policy catch up.

In Cyber Privacy, Doss demystifies the digital footprints we leave in our daily lives and reveals how our data is being used—sometimes against us—by the private sector, the government, and even our employers and schools. She explains the trends in data science, technology, and the law that impact our everyday privacy. She tackles big questions: how data aggregation undermines personal autonomy, how to measure what privacy is worth, and how society can benefit from big data while managing its risks and being clear-eyed about its cost.

It's high time to rethink notions of privacy and what, if anything, limits the power of those who are constantly watching, listening, and learning about us.

This book is for readers who want answers to three questions: Who has your data? Why should you care? And most important, what can you do about it?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Mapping the Privacy Landscape
• Section I: What Kinds of Data Are We Talking About, and What Kind of Privacy Do We Mean?
• Section II: If You’re Not Paying for the Product, You Are the Product
• Section III: Power Play: How Personal Data Exacerbates the Power Imbalances in Everyday Life
• Section IV: Who’s Your Big Brother?
• Section V: Global Rules in a Connected World: How Other Countries Handle Data
• Section VI: Pandora’s Box: Data’s Dangers, and Finding Hope at the Bottom of the Box
• Conclusion: Making Sure That Human Beings Still Pass the Turing Test
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author