“I Have Nothing to Hide”: And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy

Length: 240 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: Beacon Press
Publication Date: 2021-07-13
ISBN-10: 0807061263
ISBN-13: 9780807061268
Sales Rank: #607388 (See Top 100 Books)

An accessible guide that breaks down the complex issues around mass surveillance and data privacy and explores the negative consequences it can have on individual citizens and their communities.

No one is exempt from data mining: by owning a smartphone, or using social media or a credit card, we hand over private data to corporations and the government. We need to understand how surveillance and data collection operates in order to regain control over our digital freedoms—and our lives.

Attorney and data privacy expert Heidi Boghosian unpacks widespread myths around the seemingly innocuous nature of surveillance, sets the record straight about what government agencies and corporations do with our personal data, and offers solutions to take back our information. “I Have Nothing to Hide” is both a necessary mass surveillance overview and a reference book. It addresses the misconceptions around tradeoffs between privacy and security, citizen spying, and the ability to design products with privacy protections. Boghosian breaks down misinformation surrounding 21 core myths about data privacy, including:

“Surveillance makes the nation safer.”
“No one wants to spy on kids.”
“Police don’t monitor social media.”
“Metadata doesn’t reveal much about me.”
“Congress and the courts protect us from surveillance.”
“There’s nothing I can do to stop surveillance.”

By dispelling myths related to surveillance, this book helps readers better understand what data is being collected, who is gathering it, how they’re doing it, and why it matters.

Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: PERSONAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY
    MYTH 1 “Smart homes are more secure”
    MYTH 2 “I have nothing to hide, so I have nothing to fear”
    MYTH 3 “Encryption and anonymity tools—those are for terrorists!”
    MYTH 4 “We should worry about government, not corporate, surveillance”
    MYTH 5 “The USA doesn’t have national ID numbers”
    MYTH 6 “Surveillance drones are just for war”
    MYTH 7 “Surveillance makes the nation safer”
PART TWO: PROTECTIONS AND IMMUNITIES
    MYTH 8 “No one wants to spy on kids”
    MYTH 9 “Police don’t monitor social media”
    MYTH 10 “Biometrics technologies are foolproof”
    MYTH 11 “Metadata doesn’t reveal much about me”
    MYTH 12 “The Constitution protects reporters and their sources”
    MYTH 13 “The attorney–client privilege is sacrosanct”
    MYTH 14 “They can’t design devices and platforms for privacy”
    MYTH 15 “Congress and courts protect us from surveillance”
PART THREE: IMPACT ON AUTONOMY, COMMUNITY, AND SOCIETY
    MYTH 16 “Surveillance doesn’t influence how I act”
    MYTH 17 “Teenagers don’t care about privacy”
    MYTH 18 “Surveillance affects everyone equally”
    MYTH 19 “‘If You See Something, Say Something’ is a civic duty”
    MYTH 20 “Surveillance can’t predict future behavior”
    MYTH 21 “There’s nothing I can do to stop surveillance”
Surveillance and Privacy Timeline
Acknowledgments
Notes
Copyright