April Falcon Doss, a cybersecurity and privacy expert with experience working for the NSA and the US government, explores the most common types of data being collected about individuals today and delve into how it is being used—sometimes against us—by the private sector, the government, and even our employers and schools.
You're being tracked. Google, Facebook, and Amazon—not to mention the federal government—keep incredible amounts of information about your online and real-world behaviors.
Understand why it's a problem.
We live in an era of unprecedented data aggregation, and the trade-offs between individual privacy, personal convenience, and national security and cybersecurity have never been more challenging to negotiate. Technology is evolving quickly, while laws and policies are changing slowly.
April Falcon Doss, a cybersecurity and privacy expert with experience working for the NSA and the US government, has seen this imbalance in action. She wants to see policy catch up, for the protection of individuals and our private data. That starts with spreading awareness.
In Cyber Privacy, Doss explores the most common types of data being collected about individuals today and delves into how it is being used—sometimes against us—by the private sector, the government, and even our employers and schools. She reveals the trends in technology, data science, and law that directly impact our privacy, based on the digital footprints we leave in our daily lives. Most important, Doss also offers new approaches that can help law, policy, and ethics keep pace with technological change.
No matter where we live or what demographic groups we fall into, someone is collecting our data: to profile us, target us, assess us; to predict our behaviour and analyse our attitudes; to influence the things we do and buy—even to impact our vote. Though government surveillance is one facet of the challenge, data collected by national security programs pale in comparison to the exquisitely detailed user profiles that are being amassed by major brands.
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. Cyber Privacy offers realistic solutions to restore individuals' control over information about us that is created, collected, combined, and manipulated every day.
