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Carissa Véliz

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Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data Kindle Edition

by Carissa Veliz (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 361 ratings

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An Economist Book of the Year

Every minute of every day, our data is harvested and exploited… It is time to pull the plug on the surveillance economy.

Governments and hundreds of corporations are spying on you, and everyone you know. They're not just selling your data. They're selling the power to influence you and decide for you. Even when you've explicitly asked them not to.

Reclaiming privacy is the only way we can regain control of our lives and our societies. These governments and corporations have too much power, and their power stems from us--from our data. Privacy is as collective as it is personal, and it's time to take back control.

Privacy Is Power tells you how to do exactly that. It calls for the end of the data economy and proposes concrete measures to bring that end about, offering practical solutions, both for policymakers and ordinary citizens.

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286 pages
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English
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Melville House
Publication date

April 6, 2021
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Editorial Reviews

Review

An Economist Book of the Year

"In recent years, concerns over digital data mining and violations of online privacy have become an increasing concern within both public and political spheres...These concerns are meticulously explored in Privacy is Power. The book exposes the ethics of how corporations and governments exploit data, and how users can obtain greater protection." -- Newsweek

"Carissa Véliz has written a book that everyone should read. If you are uneasy about the creeping digitalization of human life and our ever-eroding expectations of privacy—or would like to be—then you will enjoy and benefit from her book." -- Public Books

"No one explains the issues and opportunities in privacy better than Carissa Véliz. Her book, Privacy Is Power is brilliant." —Roger McNamee, author of Zucked

"A powerful cri de coeur for technological liberation that merits the attention of every consumer of digital services." —Kirkus Reviews

“An essential guide to one of the most pressing modern issues.” —Hannah Fry, author of Hello World

“We didn't see digital surveillance coming, but today it's threatening democracy and basic freedoms. If you want to understand why privacy matters more than ever before, and how we can preserve it in an age of data grabbing, read this book.” —Nigel Warburton, author of A Little History of Philosophy

“A forceful call for us to tame the data economy by reclaiming our privacy ... and our power.” —Jonathan Zittrain, author of The Future of the Internet

“In this bold, original, and engaging book, Carissa Véliz makes a compelling case for the revolutionary goal of reclaiming privacy from the grip of a destructive data economy. While many have lamented the ills of surveillance capitalism, Véliz's courageous manifesto paves a clear path for regaining power--taking back our ill-gotten information from tech companies and data brokers and reinvigorating democracy in the process.” —Evan Selinger, Professor of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology and co-author of The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Privacy

“How much does it matter that every day we unwittingly hand over more and more of our personal data to internet giants? In this smart, stylishly written, and alarming volume Carissa Veliz argues that it matters a great deal and that we don't have to put up with it. Essential reading for those of us who click 'agree' ten times a day.” —Jonathan Wolff, author of An Introduction to Moral Philosophy

About the Author

Carissa Veliz is a Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, and Christ Church at the University of Oxford. Veliz has published articles in media such as the Guardian, the New York Times, New Statesman, and the Independent. Her academic work has been published in The Harvard Business Review, Nature Electronics, Nature Energy, and The American Journal of Bioethics, among other journals. She is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

They are watching us. They know I’m writing these words. They know you are reading them. Governments and hundreds of corporations are spying on you and me, and everyone we know. Every minute of every day. They track and record all they can: our location, our communications, our internet searches, our biometric information, our social relations, our purchases, and much more. They want to know who we are, what we think, where we hurt. They want to predict and influence our behaviour. They have too much power. Their power stems from us, from you, from your data. It’s time to take back control. Reclaiming privacy is the only way we can regain control of our lives and our societies.

The internet is primarily funded by the collection, analysis, and trade of data – the data economy. Much of that data is personal data – data about you. The trading of personal data as a business model is increasingly being exported to all institutions in society – the surveillance society, or surveillance capitalism.

To reach you, I had to go through surveillance capitalism – I’m sorry. How did you become aware of this book? Can you remember how you first heard about it, or where you saw an ad for it? You might’ve been tagged by some platform or another as a ‘pioneer’, someone who is on the lookout for knowledge and new experiences. You like books that make you think. Or you might be an ‘advocate’, someone worried about social issues and politically engaged. Fit the bill? The main objective of this book is to empower you, but most similar uses of your data will disempower you.

If surveillance didn’t catch you before buying this book, it probably did afterwards. If you are reading these words on a Kindle, or Google Books, or a Nook, they are measuring how long it takes you to read each word, where you stop to take a break, and what you highlight. If you bought this book in a bookshop, the smartphone in your pocket was recording your journey there, and how long you stayed. The music in the bookshop might have been sending ultrasound beacons to your phone to identify it as your phone and track your interests and purchases. If you used a debit or credit card to buy the book, they probably sold that information to data brokers who then sold it to insurance companies, possible employers, governments, businesses, and whoever else might have been interested in it. Or you may even have linked your payment card to a loyalty system, which tracks your purchasing history and uses that information to try to sell you more things the algorithm reckons you might buy.

The data economy, and the ubiquitous surveillance on which it feeds, took us by surprise. Tech companies did not inform users of how our data was being used, much less ask for our permission. They didn’t ask our governments either. There were no laws to regulate the data trail left behind by unsuspecting citizens as we went about our business in an increasingly digital world. By the time we realized it was happening, the surveillance architecture was already in place. Much of our privacy was gone. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, privacy is facing new threats, as previously offline activities have moved online, and we have been asked to give up our personal data in the name of the public good. It is a time to think very carefully about what sort of world we want to inhabit when the pandemic becomes a distant memory. A world without privacy is a dangerous one.

Privacy is about being able to keep certain intimate things to yourself – your thoughts, your experiences, your conversations, your plans. Human beings need privacy to be able to unwind from the burden of being with other people. We need privacy to explore new ideas freely, to make up our own minds. Privacy protects us from unwanted pressures and abuses of power. We need it to be autonomous individuals, and for democracies to function well we need citizens to be autonomous.

Our lives, translated into data, are the raw material of the surveillance economy. Our hopes, our fears, what we read, what we write, our relationships, our diseases, our mistakes, our purchases, our weaknesses, our faces, our voices – everything is used as fodder for data vultures who collect it all, analyse it all, and sell it to the highest bidder. Too many of those acquiring our data want it for nefarious purposes: to betray our secrets to insurance companies, employers and governments; to sell us things it’s not in our interest to buy; to pit us against each other in an effort to destroy our society from the inside; to disinform us and hijack our democracies. The surveillance society has transformed citizens into users and data subjects. Enough is enough. Those who have violated our right to privacy have abused our trust, and it’s time to pull the plug on their source of power – our data.

It’s too late to prevent the data economy from developing in the first place – but it’s not too late to reclaim our privacy. Our civil liberties are at stake. The decisions we make about privacy today and in the coming years will shape the future of humanity for decades to come. Societal choices about privacy will influence how political campaigns are run, how corporations earn their keep, the power that governments and private businesses may wield, the advancement of medicine, the pursuit of public health goals, the risks we are exposed to, how we interact with each other, and, not least, whether our rights are respected as we go about our daily lives.

This book is about the state of privacy today, how the surveillance economy came about, why we should end the trade in personal data, and how to do it. Chapter One accompanies a person throughout a day in the surveillance society to illustrate how much privacy is being taken away from us. Chapter Two explains how the data economy developed, in the hope that understanding how we got into this mess will be helpful in getting us out of it. In Chapter Three I argue that privacy is a form of power, and that whoever has the most personal data will dominate society. If we give our data to companies, the wealthy will rule. If we give our data to governments, we will end up with some form of authoritarianism. Only if the people keep their data will society be free. Privacy matters because it gives power to the people.

The surveillance economy is not only bad because it creates and enhances undesirable power asymmetries. It is also dangerous because it trades in a toxic substance. Chapter Four examines why personal data is toxic and how it is poisoning our lives, our institutions, and our societies. We need to put a stop to the data economy like we put a stop to other kinds of economic exploitation in the past. Economic systems that depend on the violation of rights are unacceptable. Chapter Five is about how societies can pull the plug on the surveillance economy. Chapter Six is about what you can do as an individual to take back control of your personal data and our democracies.

We are not witnessing the death of privacy. Even though privacy is in distress, we are in a better place now to defend it than we have been for the past decade. This is only the beginning of the fight to safeguard personal data in the digital age. Too much is at stake to let privacy wither – our very way of life is at risk. Surveillance threatens freedom, equality, democracy, autonomy, creativity, and intimacy. We have been lied to time and again, and our data is being stolen to be used against us. No more. Having too little privacy is at odds with having well-functioning societies. Surveillance capitalism needs to go. It will take some time and effort, but we can and will reclaim privacy. Here’s how.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08K7LNSJG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Melville House (April 6, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 6, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1340 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1787634043

Best Sellers Rank: #670,449 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #32 in Privacy & Surveillance
- #109 in Politics of Privacy & Surveillance
- #128 in Privacy & Surveillance in Society

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4.4 361 ratings

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Carissa Véliz

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Carissa Véliz is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Institute for Ethics in AI, and a Fellow at Hertford College at the University of Oxford. She works on privacy, technology, moral and political philosophy, and public policy. Véliz has published articles in media such as the Guardian, the New York Times, New Statesman, and the Independent. Her academic work has been published in The Harvard Business Review, Nature Electronics, Nature Energy, and The American Journal of Bioethics, among other journals. She is the author of Privacy Is Power (Bantam Press) and the editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics.

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cmo

Immensely important and terrifying

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2020

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Veliz is a powerful writer and Privacy is Power is a powerful book. If you are interested in technology, governance, consumer rights, or just worried about how ads pop up related to products you mentioned just minutes ago in a phone conversation, this book is enlightening and empowering even as it outlines a politically terrifying prospect of losing privacy in the modern age.

Veliz outlines 1) how we (primarily the UK and the US) lost so much of our privacy, 2) the implications of this loss, 3) the normative value of privacy, and 4) how we can start to recover it. Privacy is being eroded in *so many parts of our lives* that one book cannot possibly contain a whole history of the issue--but Veliz masterfully condenses the major issues into just a few chapters.

Some highlights:
-Chapter 3 goes into detail about how one person's relinquishment of privacy affects all of their acquaintances, friends, and family (with primary examples from Cambridge Analytica and 23andMe)
-Chapter 4 describes how targeted ads not only affect our consumption patterns but our political behavior, and how the lack of transparency in targeting practices reduces public accountability for political lies.
-Chapter 6 provides helpful steps individuals can take to control their own data and outlines what we should be looking for when we buy products (hint: no smart appliances! no surveillance devices like Alexa or Siri!)

An implicit "right to privacy" in the US Constitution gave us access to contraception, pornography, abortion, and legalized sodomy. That this privacy is being eroded (quickly! drastically!) by tech companies and governments alike is absolutely terrifying and affects our ability to live our lives without fear of misuse of this information (labor market discrimination, political polarization, misuse of the legal system, etc). Veliz gives us the tools to understand both why our data matter and how to protect it. Truly a must-read.

15 people found this helpful

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CD

Quick, powerful read about the future (and past) of big tech and data

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2021

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I read this for school lol but it was actually a very good, fast read! I also recognize the irony of posting about a book about privacy on a platform that steals all our data. Anyway, this was incredibly interesting, and while I liked it all, I found the final two chapter on what we (as individuals and our governments) can do about taking back our data and privacy to be the most impactful.

6 people found this helpful

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Jay S.

A must-read or EVERYONE not living off the grid!

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2022

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Wow! This was an eye-opening read and one that I wish EVERYONE would consider reading. The matter of data privacy is something I've always thought should be considered individually according to one's own appetite and tolerance for risk. And that decision making should really be well informed in order for individuals to truly understand what the risks are to their personal data privacy. But what I had not fully considered or understood until reading this book is the extent to which digital privacy is a shared and collaborative thing. Like it or not, we live in what Ms. Véliz calls a surveillance capitalism society, and our collective awareness of how our personal data is being used today is essential to our ability to influence how it is used in the future.

We enjoy many Internet products and services for “free”. We think they’re paid for with ad revenue alone. But the extent to which data about us can be used (and is being used) in ways that are disadvantageous to us is staggering. It’s also complicatedC but this book does a great job of breaking it down and making the information accessible to any reader.

This content is well-researched, meticulously crafted, and well-supported by anecdotal stories and evidence we can all relate to. This is NOT a slog but an engaging and important read. I beg everyone to read it and encourage their friends and family to do the same!

3 people found this helpful

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Eran Globus

must read book in the digital age

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2023

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fantastic book, highly accessible to anyone who uses digital technology, which is all of us

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Alejandro Pisanty

Excellent, thorough, passionate, highly readable account of problems with social media and data

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020

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Prof. Veliz gives us an excellent account of various problems arising from commerce in personal data. She discusses realistic differences with data that *must* be kept by governments and firms, then goes through a broad spectrum of issues with clarity and passion. While the problems with undue, surreptitious influencing on human conduct and choices are wicked, she points out at least some creative routes for a global improvement that must be heard. Her depth of scholarship does not interfere with the clarity of her argument; it is solidly grounded, yet compelling in its presentation.

One person found this helpful

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A M

A manifest rather than a balanced review

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2021

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The book claims that the right to privacy is an absolute one, that should never be compromised and ignore cases where it makes sense to give up some privacy in order to raise our welfare. For example, the author claims that we should never share any genetic data since we might heart family members, but ignores the useful medical research projects that are based on analyzing genomic data of many people (disclosure: I participate in some of these projects). Adopting the author style, one may ask: how many lives (that are saved by these research projects) are equal to how much privacy? The book also suffers from some inconsistencies. For example, the author claims that by applying AI companies like Facebook know about us much more than our closest friends, but it also claims that the NSA, which has more data than Facebook, fails to find any terrorist by applying AI. Another example: the author suggests that personal ads should be disallowed by law, but also claims that such ads are economically inefficient (and therefore, businesses are supposed to stop using them without any law).

7 people found this helpful

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Paulo A. Reimann

OK

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2021

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Apparently the jennie has left the bottle and no can do to avoid snoopers. Book is good, a tremendous warning coming too late.

One person found this helpful

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Mohsen

Must-read: How to get back privacy of our data and our democracy!

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2020

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That is great book on how valuable is our personal data which needs a collective effort from all of us and not simply individuals to take care of it!

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Carlos Chalico

WOW

Reviewed in Canada on March 27, 2022

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I have been doing privacy for some years now. I like how this book is very well installed in a position that makes it attractive for privacy professionals and for interested readers who want to learn more about the topic, and they will.

I love the flow, the substance, the energy, the power, and the optimism. It is inviting and encouraging.

I hope you can read it, it will be good for you, for me, for everyone.

Quite Coherent Eccentric

Fresh take on the collective nature of privacy in our tech-driven future!

Reviewed in Germany on November 18, 2023

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In Carissa Véliz's "Privacy Is Power," she skillfully explores the intricate connection between data capitalism and individual privacy, highlighting its collective significance. The book not only provides profound philosophical insights but also immerses readers in a thought-provoking narrative akin to dystopian fiction, prompting introspection about one's life and community. Véliz's astute discussion of privacy as a parallel to ecological and other collective action issues, and the resultant impact on cooperation and democracy, often overlooked, is particularly noteworthy. What's more, her compelling examination of how the lack of privacy enabled atrocities in the past, viewed in the context of today's high-tech landscape, was profoundly moving. This book is essential for those in search of a fresh perspective on the collective nature of privacy and its implications in our technology-driven future.

Ale F

An essential reading for the current digital age. Frightening, thought-provoking, hopeful.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2023

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This may be the most important book you’ll read. We’ve all become ‘digital beings’ (or ‘netizens’ as called in the book), not just human beings, and as generations before us fought and sacrificed for human rights, we need to take action NOW to defend our ‘digital rights’.

It is an essential reading to become more aware and conscious of how our personal data and ‘digital’ trails are used often against us, influencing our tastes, habits and political biases.

The book is thoroughly research, clearly written and widely accessible. No one is exempt from taking action because, as the author rightly states, privacy is shared concern. The least you can do is talk about this subject, the more people become aware and give a damn, the easier it will be to protect our freedom.

2 people found this helpful

Johanness

Es un libro de lectura obligada para concientizar al público

Reviewed in Mexico on March 3, 2021

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El libro está muy bien escrito, con una prosa fácil y amena. Me parece un libro de lectura obligada para concientizar al público en general acerca de los peligros que nos acechan en el uso indiscriminado de las redes sociales; en especial en la facilidad con la que proporcionamos todo tipo de información privada sin saber si los dueños de las redes harán honor a su promesa de confidencialidad, cuando hay abrumadoras evidencias de que no lo hacen. Es necesario que los gobiernos regulen estrictamente el uso de información privada y establezcan multas onerosas a quienes violen los acuerdos.

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Jyoti

Short and precise book on privacy

Reviewed in India on July 7, 2022

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A good, small and compact book dealing with current issues with online privacy. It teaches how we should use our data, how much to share with companies and how to change the current system by doing small things collectively. Good book to also learn about data economy and its misuses.

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