Daniel J Solove: Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · data mining, internet, law, politics, privacy, security, surveillance, technology, terrorism
“If you’ve got nothing to hide,” many people say, “you shouldn’t worry about government surveillance.” Others argue that we must sacrifice privacy for security. But as Daniel J. Solove argues in this important book, these arguments and many others are flawed. They are based on mistaken views about what it means to protect privacy and the costs and benefits of doing so. The debate between privacy and security has been framed incorrectly as a zero-sum game in which we are forced to choose between one value and the other. Why can’t we have both?
In this concise and accessible book, Solove exposes the fallacies of many pro-security arguments that have skewed law and policy to favor security at the expense of privacy. Protecting privacy isn’t fatal to security measures; it merely involves adequate oversight and regulation. Solove traces the history of the privacy-security debate from the Revolution to the present day. He explains how the law protects privacy and examines concerns with new technologies. He then points out the failings of our current system and offers specific remedies. Nothing to Hide makes a powerful and compelling case for reaching a better balance between privacy and security and reveals why doing so is essential to protect our freedom and democracy.
Publisher Yale University Press, 2011
ISBN 0300172311, 9780300172317
256 pages
Steven Levy: Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government. Saving Privacy in the Digital Age (2002)
Filed under book | Tags: · hacker culture, hacking, politics, privacy, security
Crypto is about privacy in the information age and about the nerds and visionaries who, nearly twenty years ago, predicted that the Internet’s greatest virtue–free access to information–was also its most perilous drawback: a possible end to privacy. Levy explores what turned out to be a decisive development in the crypto wars: the unlikely alliance between the computer geeks and big business as they fought the government’s stranglehold on the keys to information in a networked world. The players come alive here in a narrative that reads like the best of futuristic spy fiction. There is Whit Diffie, the long-haired Newton of crypto who invented the astounding “public key” solution; David Chaum, whose “anonymous digital money” actually threatened the global financial infrastructure; and “cypherpunks” like Phil Zimmermann, who freely distributed military-strength codes under the nose of the U. S. government. There is also the first behind-the-scenes account of what the secretive National Security Agency really had in mind when it created the controversial “clipper chip”–and how the Clinton administration bungled the operation. Sure to appeal to everyone who kept David Kahn’s sweeping The Codebreakers in print for more than thirty years and readers who are making Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, Mark’s Between Silk and Cyanide, and Singh’s The Code Book bestsellers, Crypto will soon be the new classic of its subject. Crypto is a bestselling book and winner in the category of best Non-Fiction eBooks for the International eBook Award Foundation 2001 eBook awards ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany.
Publisher Penguin, 2002
Series: Penguin Press Science Series
ISBN 0140244328, 9780140244328
Length 356 pages
Emmanuel Goldstein: The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · computing, hacker culture, hacking, security, technology
Since 1984, the quarterly magazine 2600 has provided fascinating articles for readers who are curious about technology. Find the best of the magazine’s writing in Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey, a collection of the strongest, most interesting, and often most controversial articles covering 24 years of changes in technology, all from a hacker’s perspective. Included are stories about the creation of the infamous tone dialer “red box” that allowed hackers to make free phone calls from payphones, the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the insecurity of modern locks.
Publisher John Wiley & Sons, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-470-29419-2
888 pages