In a world where immense amounts of data are saved to the cloud, tech companies are more and more powerful, and their behavior in managing that information (our digital lives, but that affects most parts of our offline lives) is vitally important. In a global digital world, your data could be racking up digital miles all over the world even while you sleep, and without your knowledge.

In Tools and Weapons, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne address a wide range of issues, such as surveillance, social media, digital diplomacy, artificial intelligence, and ethics. Smith provides a fascinating overview of issues past and present with respect to the above, as well as government regulation and how tech companies respond to social issues (for example, there are chapters on consumer privacy, rural broadband, and the talent gap with respect to computer science).

The book is easy to read and understand, even for a lay person, and is a fascinating overview of these areas of concern. Smith provides the reader with an insider view of major events in the tech industry that continue to be relevant, and provides a peek into Microsoft's decision-making process. Microsoft is a lot more proactive and socially conscious than I ever realized. I particularity enjoyed hearing about how Microsoft worked with other organizations and governments to address various issues.

More than anything, the book gives a lot of food for thought about the benefits, negatives, and things to be aware of related to ever-evolving technology. Having read the book I am better informed, which is exactly what I was hoping for from Tools and Weapons.

The opinions in this review are honest and my own.

As you may know [blog readers], we currently have school-based subscriptions to both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And on Friday both of those papers had stories about comments from Brad Smith. The New York Times said, "Microsoft Corp President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said on Friday that technology companies are likely to change how they moderate online platforms in response to new laws from foreign governments, regardless of whether U.S. lawmakers act to change ... U.S. law ..." And The Wall Street Journal also discussed ethical issues while mentioning the new book, TOOLS AND WEAPONS by Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne. It contains a foreword by Bill Gates where he describes this book as "a clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today." Smith and Browne subtitled their book "The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age" and they do not shy away from relating events and raising issues associated with Snowden and diplomacy, with facial recognition and artificial intelligence and with social media, surveillance, or personal privacy. As reflected in the duality of the title, TOOLS AND WEAPONS prompts many questions about the concentration of power in corporations (e.g., amount of energy used to power machines) and in governments (e.g., relative to political activism and human rights). We will have a copy on our shelves soon. Get informed for these key discussions – and please see a librarian for help activating your digital newspaper subscriptions.