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"This book deals with two very large and often amorphous concepts: privacy and surveillance in the context of both government and the marketplace. Both concepts have undergone changes over the millennia of recorded human history, and those changes have dramatically sped up and expanded over the past few centuries, starting with the widespread use of the printing press in the mid- to late-15th century when books and newspapers began to proliferate across Europe and the rest of the "civilized" world by the end of the 17th century. The development of radio, television and the internet in the 20th century heightened the need to define more clearly what both concepts meant and how they applied both to governments (the "public sector") and individual and corporate players (the "private sector"). The Thought Police and Big Brother are terms introduced into the popular lexicon by George Orwell in his novel 1984; Big Brother was the overweening all-powerful government of Orwell's novel, and the Thought Police were those who managed to burrow so deeply into every citizen's behavior, speech and even thoughts that they could control or punish behavior based on the slightest deviations from orthodoxy. Orwell was only slightly off the mark. Big Brother types of government, and Thought Police types of social control, are now widespread in the world and incompatible with democracy, as I'll show in more detail later in the book. Most concerning for Americans and citizens of other "democratic" nations, the mentality of both have heavily infiltrated both American government and corporate sectors, reaching so deeply into the day-to-day details of our lives that the techniques and technologies they use can - and do -not only control, but predict our behavior"--
About the author
Thom Hartmann
Summary
The radio host and New York Times–bestselling author reveals how government and corporations misuse our personal data and how we can reclaim our privacy.
Many Americans worry about how companies like Facebook invade their privacy and harvest their data, but few fully understand the details of how their information is used—and misused. In this thought-provoking book, Thom Hartmann reveals exactly how the government and corporations are tracking our every online move and using our data for purposes ranging from buying elections to monetizing our lives.
Hartmann uses extensive, vivid examples to highlight the consequences of Big Data on all aspects of our lives, and traces the history of surveillance. As he explains, the goal of those who violate privacy and use surveillance is almost always social control and behavior modification.
Along with covering the history, Hartmann shows how we got to where we are today, how China—with its new Social Credit System—serves as a warning, and how we can and must avoid a similarly dystopian future. By delving into the Constitutional right to privacy, Hartmann reminds us of our civil right and shows how we can restore it.
“Expertly chronicles how Big Data coercively shapes our lives to profit off us . . . Hartmann’s urgent warning about the rise of the corporate-police state couldn’t be timelier.” —Maya Schenwar, coauthor of Prison by Any Other Name
Praise for Thom Hartmann
“Solid research.” —Publishers Weekly
“Brilliant ideas and eloquent writing.”—John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
