Digital privacy is definitely a hot topic at the moment and it's an important one that will have a huge impact on our future. I work in tech but am by no means a data scientist, and this book gave some great insights into the history as well as the current state of data analysis and collection.
The language does get technical in certain places but I never found myself lost, so if you have a basic understanding of how data and the Internet works, you should have no problem following along. Would totally recommend this to people curious about these topics, it give a great overview and hammers home the many implications for our future in the cyber space.

I selected "Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care" by April Falcon Doss because I am a data scientist myself and I wanted to see to what extent the author shares the power of data. After reading the book I can say the author has done a pretty good job.

I don't want to share much about the content, for that you can refer blurb or others' review. But the author has taken proper ways including historical importance and implementations to explain things. Starting from most common and more specific I.e. individual data theft (I.e. financial information), to more information-driven such as your likes & dislikes. Everything can be derived easily.

But it is also equally difficult not to leave a trail behind. Every damn digital thing we do leave footprints behind. Let's say you don't use a smartphone or even a phone. But the content you watch on your television leaves a trace behind. Examples are many I have quoted only one. Many such examples and few steps to reduce risk at your side were quoted in this book. As the author is a lawyer you will also find many citations of cyber law.

Am sure opening the book, language is somewhat semi-technical at places. But enjoyable read which deserves 4 out of 5.

A fascinating look at how the cyber world tracks you, hacks you, and what you can do about it. Easy to read for any non-techie and filled with little nuggets of history regarding fingerprints, crime tools, etc. A great read, and an even better tool for understanding the way the cyber world works.

I mean this in a lighthearted way, but this book rivals any horror book I've read.

The amount of your personal data that can be culled from your online touchpoints is generally well known (and stupidly accepted) but April Falcon Doss takes such a deep dive that you feel it in your chest. The facts laid out are so eye-opening that I found myself stopping constantly to discuss what I just read. People taking samples from dog waste to send to a company that can tell you who the dog belongs to? Facebook and the ;like having more info on you and your friends than the government? How easy it is to install tracking and keystroke apps on your spouses phone (and how often its done)? Just crazy.

Doss doesn't just speak to present day issues. She does a wonderful job of pulling in historical framework and, more importantly, what can be done in the future to lessen the shackles a little bit both in the word of law and what we as individuals can do.

I imagine it is difficult writing a book like this given how quickly things change but this is an outstanding text that will hold its own for years to come.

Thank you to both NetGalley and BenBella Books for providing me an advance copy of April Falcon Doss’s nonfiction work, Cyber Privacy, in exchange for an honest review.

Cyber Privacy is a comprehensive and well-researched nonfiction work that serves as a general primer to issues concerning online data and privacy. Thus, it did not come as a shock when I learned that the author was a former attorney at the NSA, and now works in the private sector advising clients on related issues while also teaching at a prominent law school. In fact, the first handful of chapters mirror my privacy casebooks from law school; only they were more condensed and straight-forward.

If you already have experience in the privacy sector (e.g., law, tech, government, etc.), then you can probably skip the first half unless you need/want a refresher. On the other hand, if you do not have any experience in the privacy realm and want to learn more about the space, then I highly recommend reading Cyber Privacy from cover-to-cover because it is the perfect introductory course.

The author truly understands the subject at hand, which enables her to present it in a clear and unambiguous manner. The issues expounded on are extremely relevant to our current and future society. In the past, I have intentionally avoided nonfictions works on certain topics because by the time they are published, the law, technology, or some other significant variable has changed and the information is already outdated. That is not the case with this book. Cyber Privacy is so timely that it even includes material on the Trump administration and the pandemic.

Although this novel poses more questions than answers (as the author admits herself), it provides a solid foundation to the history of how we got where we are today, the repercussions that stemmed from the way data and privacy laws were initially crafted (looking at you CDA § 230), and what we should focus on when drafting privacy and data legislation in the future.

As for people who have experience in this field, the most important chapter is towards the end, which touches upon the future of privacy law. The author proposes some loose frameworks to base new regulations on and discusses how difficult it is to destroy the “stovepipe” model of our current legislation (though we need to if we want to strengthen our approach).

The author acknowledges in her conclusion that this topic requires a multivolume set of works. If that is the case, then I am already looking forward to reading what she has to say in her second book on the subject.

The book deserves to be viewed by the general public, not just people with a direct interest in the topic of cyberspace and how it is used.

The author develops and complements questions related to personal data use and not only - the main question we all need to ask ourselves: should we be interested in our rights online, and if so - why are we not interested? The book is a great addition to the conversations on these topics, and the author has something to say, given the extensive experience in cyberspace and the rights in it. Four-star because I feel the book needed to provide more tips and advice on how to proceed in our current online life.

This is a book about pervasive data collection and its implications. The author, April Falcon Doss, is a lawyer who spent 13 years at the US National Security Agency (NSA), itself an organization controversial for phone-tapping and other covert surveillance practices. Disturbing though that is, one of Doss’s observations is that “in democratic countries … the government doesn’t have nearly as much data as private companies do.” She argues that government-held data is less troubling since its usage is well regulated, unlike privately held data – though these safeguards do not apply in authoritarian regimes.

Government use then is just one piece of something much bigger, the colossal amount of personal data gathered on so much of what we do, our buying habits, what we search for on the internet, our health, our location, our contacts, tastes and preferences, all tracked, stored, and used in ways that we might not expect. Most of the book simply describes what is happening, and this will be eye-opening to anyone who has not followed the growth of data collection and its use in marketing and advertising over the last twenty years or so. Doss describes how a researcher analyzed his iPhone activity and found that "within seven days, the phone had exported data via 5,400 hidden app trackers." - and Google's Android is even worse.

How much do we care and how much should we care? Doss looks at this question which to me is of particular interest. We like getting stuff for free, like social media, search, maps and directions; but how aware are we of hidden costs like compromised privacy and would we be willing to pay in other ways? Studies on the subject are contradictory; humans are not very logical on the matter, and it depends exactly how the trade-off between privacy and cost is presented. The tech giants know this and in general we easily succumb to the temptation to hand over personal information when signing up for free services.

Doss makes some excellent and succinct points, as when she writes that “privacy policies offer little more than a fig leaf of user notice and consent since they are cumbersome to read, difficult to understand, and individuals have few alternatives when it comes to using the major digital platforms.” She also takes aim at well-intended but ineffective cookie legislation – which have given rise to the banners you see, especially in the EU, inviting you to accept all manner of cookies when you visit a web site for the first time. “A great deal of energy and attention has gone into drafting and implementing cookie notice laws,” she says. “But it is an open question whether anyone’s privacy has actually increased.”

She also observes that we are in uncharted territory. “It turns out that all of us have been unwitting participants in a multifaceted, loosely designed program of unregulated research,” she writes.

Personally I agree that the issue is super-important and deserves more attention than it gets, so I am grateful for the book. There are a couple of issues though. One is that the reason personal data gathering has escalated so fast is that we’ve seen benefits – like free services and personalisation of advertising which reduces the amount of irrelevant material we see – but the harms are more hidden. What are the harms? Doss does identify some harms, such as reduced freedom in authoritarian regimes, or higher prices for things like Uber transport when algorithms decide what offers to show based on our willingness to pay. I would like to have seen more attention paid though to the most obvious harm of the moment, the fact that abuse of personal data and social media may have resulted in political upheavals like the election of Donald Trump as US president, or the result of the Brexit referendum in the UK. Whatever your political views, those who value democracy should be concerned; Doss gives this matter some attention but not as much as it merits, in my opinion.

Second, the big question is what can be done; and here the book is short of answers. Doss ends up arguing that we have passed the point of no return in terms of data collection. “The real challenge lies in creating sufficient restrictions to rein in the human tendency to misuse information for purposes that we’ve collectively decided are unacceptable in society,” she writes, acknowledging that how we do so remains an open question.

She says that her ambitions for the book become more modest as the research continued, ending with the hope that she has provided “a catalogue of risks and relevant questions, along with a useful framework for thinking about the future” which “may spark further, future discussions.”

Fair enough, but I would like to have seen more practical suggestions. Should we regulate more? Should Google or Facebook be broken up? As individuals, does it help if we close social media accounts and become more wary about the data that we give away?

Nevertheless I welcome this thought-provoking book and hope that it does help to stimulate the future debate for which the author hopes.