Tag: #privacy

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

book jacket manga style teens with x in backgroundLittle Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008) surveillance run amok and not in a good way. Obvious references to George Orwell’s 1984 creation of Big Brother and the constant surveillance state abound. The protagonist even uses Winston (W1n5t0n) as a handle, the name of Orwell’s protagonist.

Good read. In fact, I decided it warranted a straight through read because it was that kind of plot. Chain events leading ever onward. The 2008 contrasted with reality of 2017 (being unbelievably surreal today) dates the plot a bit because it relies on a belief in the legitimacy and independence of the Fourth Estate, A Free Press.

The concept of Fake News comes through perfectly with the way the clever teens find themselves being misunderstood and portrayed as terrorists instead of freedom fighters in the general news.

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The Dystopia of “The Circle” by Dave Eggers

book jacket red cover white circle logo of storyThe Circle by Dave Eggers (c 2013)

Dystopia in the near future described as the hell it would be if the “share everything” becomes a coerced “share everything” panopticon world of my worst nightmares described in this book.

The is the book that received a perfect 100 score referenced by a previous post and discussed on Book TV, The Bestseller Code. This book was a bestseller and received a perfect score of 100 based on the computer algorithms by Archer and Jockers.

Reading the book jacket text frames the expectations of a book so you can guess if things that seem good will turn out to be rotten or have a happy ending. A few are unpredictable journeys and this book is one of those.

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No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

book jacket no place to hideNo place to hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S, surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald (2014)
The author is the kind of investigative reporter I would like to be in my next life. That or Sinclair Lewis or other muckrakers who called out the bad things people will do if they think they can get away with it, and not have any remorse for their bad deeds. Kind of the attitude of if you didn’t want your house robbed, you should have (a) had better locks, (b) had a watch dog, (c) hired house sitter with a gun, (d) had bars on the windows, (e) insert any victim blaming you prefer here.

Somehow, it is always the individual failure and their trust that someone would simply not burgle or rob their house because stealing is wrong.

I don’t think Snowden is a “thief” who stole government information; warrantless wire tapping is theft of privacy, of the right to due process, of the belief that people are innocent until proven guilty. Whistleblowers are heroes. They are a serious threat to authority and therefore authority will crush whistleblowers whenever possible, whistleblower protection laws are illusory.

Continue reading No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald