Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century

by Simson Garfinkel

Book Overview

Fifty years ago, in 1984, George Orwell imagined a future in which privacy was demolished by a totalitarian state that used spies, video surveillance, historical revisionism, and control over the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565926536
• ISBN13: 9781565926530
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 4.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The best thing you can do

Read this and then click over to "Transfer-the end of the beginning" by Jerry Furland. This isn't the full monty. That final step that most authors seem reluctant to take can be found in "Transfer". You won't get that information anywhere else. I know. I've looked.

Awesome walk through privacy past and futures

This is a fantastic book; a fascinating read through the history of privacy, with many colorful stories. Do you know how the DEA does data shadowing to find pot growers? Do you know about CFIP from 1973 and why it is incredibly relevant 30 years later? Do you know what you can do to protect yourself? Buy this book to find out.

A must read for every American

Why every American? Because, as Garfinkel points, out Europeans are better protected than we are. In every way, on virtually every page of the book, Garfinkel shows not only how our private information is being used without our knowledge, consent, or ability to correct it, but how it is being associated. In fact, I would argue that his collection of details of how the smallest pieces of your personal, financial, medical, and employment history can be connected easily by businesses to deny you credit, a job, or insurance makes the strongest case for regulation.The kind of regulation Garfinkel argues is necessary - and which mirrors existing laws in the EU that American companies flaunt over the Web in their dealings with EU citizens - would provide the right kinds of control and redress for citizens without requiring government involvement and ownership of data. (One of the odd recurring points in the book is that Garfinkel views it as a missed opportunity that a monolithic data center wasn't built in the 60s to collate all individual information. I see his point, but imagine if Nixon had that resource at his disposal? Even without it, he had people's tax returns pulled. I may, perhaps, misunderstand Garfinkel's message there, as he felt a central storage point would have provided a nationwide opt-out control for individuals and the use of their data by any company.)It's fascinating reading and a relatively quick read for a nonfiction title. As I read it, I had prickles at the back of my neck as I discovered how my own information is being used without my knowledge. (Ever heard of the MIB? Not Men In Black - read the book...it's almost as insidious.) Database Nation paints a picture of the dangers of leaving our lives in data in the hands of business instead of our own hands. Hopefully, technology and policy will meet politics for a solution described in his book providing the kind of ownership and rights we need.

Understanding one of the defining issues in computing

First, of all, I should disclose what is probably a conflict of interest. Simson and I have been friends for years, and we have collaborated on a number of projects, including 3 books. As such, some people (who don't know me well) might suspect that I wouldn't provide an objective review. So, if you think that might be the case, then discount my recommendation by half -- and still buy and read this book. Simson has done an outstanding job documenting and describing a set of issues that a great many people -- myself included -- believe will influence computing, e-commerce, law and public policy in the next decade. They also impact every person in modern society.This book describes -- well, and with numerous citations -- how our privacy as individuals and members of groups has been eroding. Unfortunately, that erosion is accelerating, and those of us involved with information technology are a significant factor in that trend. Credit bureaus accumulate information on our spending, governments record the minutiae of their citizens' lives, health insurance organizations record everything about us that might prove useful to deny our claims, and merchants suck up every bit of information they can find so as to target us for more marketing. In each case, there is a seemingly valid reason, but the accumulated weight of all this record-keeping -- especially when coupled with the sale and interchange of the data -- is frightening. Simson provides numerous examples and case studies showing how our privacy is incrementally disappearing as more data is captured in databases large and small.The book includes chapters on a wide range of privacy-related issues, including medical information privacy, purchasing patterns and affinity programs, on-line monitoring, credit bureaus, genetic testing, government record-keeping and regulation, terrorism and law enforcement monitoring, biometrics and identification, ownership of personal information, and AI-based information modeling and collection. The 270 pages of text present a sweeping view of the various assaults on our privacy in day-to-day life. Each instance is documented as a case where someone has a reasonable cause to collect and use the information, whether for law enforcement, medical research, or government cost-saving. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of those scenarios are then extended to where the information is misused, misapplied, or combined with other information to create unexpected and unwanted intrusions.Despite my overall enthusiasm, I was a little disappointed in a few minor respects with the book. Although Simson concludes the book with an interesting agenda of issues that should be pursued in the interests of privacy protection, he misses a number of opportunities to provide the reader with information on how to better his or her own control over personal information. For instance, he describes the opt-out program for direct m

Integrity

What cyberspace requires is authors who are willing to interrogate "what we all know is true" to see, in fact, whether what we all know *is* true. This book has an extraordinary integrity to it, as it reopens a set of questions that most of us thought closed. You won't agree with everything, there are many questions left unresolved, but there is no doubt that in places this book will change you mind. It is the best book on privacy and the internet that I have seen.