I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy [Hardcover]

Lori Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 10, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1451650515 | ISBN-13: 978-1451650518

A leading specialist on social networks writes a shocking exposé of the widespread misuse of our personal online data and creates a Constitution for the web to protect us.

Social networks are the defining cultural movement of our time. Over a half a billion people are on Facebook alone. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world. But while that nation appears to be a comforting small town in which we can share photos of friends and quaint bits of trivia about our lives, it is actually a lawless battle zone—a frontier with all the hidden and unpredictable dangers of any previously unexplored place.

Social networks offer freedom. An ordinary individual can be a reporter, alerting the world to breaking news of a natural disaster or a political crisis. A layperson can be a scientist, participating in a crowd-sourced research project. Or an investigator, helping cops solve a crime.

But as we work and chat and date (and sometimes even have sex) over the web, traditional rights may be slipping away. Colleges and employers routinely reject applicants because of information found on social networks. Cops use photos from people’s profiles to charge them with crimes—or argue for harsher sentences. Robbers use postings about vacations to figure out when to break into homes. At one school, officials used cameras on students’ laptops to spy on them in their bedrooms.

The same power of information that can topple governments can also topple a person’s career, marriage, or future. What Andrews proposes is a Constitution for the web, to extend our rights to this wild new frontier. This vitally important book will generate a storm of attention.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With 750 million members, Facebook has the “power and reach of a nation,” the third largest in the world. Andrews, legal scholar and expert on social media, examines the concept of social network as a nation in need of a constitution that protects the rights of its citizens. Law-enforcement agencies and repressive regimes alike are using information from Facebook pages to go after perceived wrongdoers. Similarly, school administrators and employers search Facebook for information. With the blurring of lines between government and social networks, Facebook and other social media are used to publicize what used to be private information on citizens that they have willingly or inadvertently made public. Andrews explores growing talk of a social-network constitution, not to establish hard-and-fast rules but to offer a firm expression of fundamental values to foster development of technology that protects privacy. She includes a proposed constitution that ensures the right to connect, to free speech and expression, and to privacy of place and information. A fascinating look at social media and a valuable resource for Internet users to protect personal data. --Vanessa Bush

Review

"Unnerving narrative about the misuse of personal online information—without our knowledge—to track, judge and harm us in innumerable aspects of our lives.

"Social-network executives often dismiss online privacy concerns: 'You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it,' said Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy. But the constitutional freedoms of millions of people posting personal data on Facebook and other networks are violated routinely, and the law has not kept up with the new technology, writes lawyer Andrews (Institute for Science, Law and Technology/Illinois Institute of Technology; Immunity, 2008, etc.). Noting that social networks make their profits on users’ data, she describes the multibillion-dollar industry of data aggregators who mine online data for the advertising industry, often 'weblining' people, denying them certain opportunities due to observations about their digital selves. Most users have no idea how much information is being collected about them: 'People have a misplaced trust that what they post is private.' The results can be devastating: A Georgia teacher posted a photo showing her drinking a glass of Guinness at an Irish brewery, and she was forced to resign after the photo was e-mailed anonymously to her school superintendent. After seeing a mother’s MySpace page showing her posing provocatively in lingerie, a judge awarded custody of her young children to her husband. 'Virtually every interaction a person has in the offline world can be tainted by social network information,' writes the author, who proposes creating a 'Social Network Constitution' to govern our lives online. Her governing principles would protect against police searches of social networks without probable cause, require social networks to post conspicuous Miranda-like privacy warnings and set rules for the use or collecting of user information.

"Authoritative, important reading for policymakers and an unnerving reminder that anything you post can and will be used against you."

--Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (January 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1451650515
• ISBN-13: 978-1451650518
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Management > Digital Law

More About the Author

Lori Andrews is a law professor, a public interest lawyer and mystery novelist. She's taught at Princeton, written for a television legal drama, and advised governments around the world about emerging technologies. Now she's focusing on how social networks are changing our lives, for good and for ill.

Lori started her consumer activism when she was seven and her Ken doll went bald. Her letter to Mattel got action. She's been fighting for people's rights ever since.

A professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Lori frequently appears on television, including on Oprah, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, and Nightline. The American Bar Association Journal calls her "a lawyer with a literary bent who has the scientific chops to rival any CSI investigator."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but Overly Legalistic - January 10, 2012

By Loyd E. Eskildson HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

Andrews' book starts out focusing on Facebook, but then goes beyond that topic to the broader issue of firms using the Internet to research customers and sell the information to advertisers, potential employers, etc., and the sometimes negative consequences of their doing so. The material is good and eye-opening, but much of it is overly legalistic (eg. Constitutional and court case references) for my taste.

Facebook has 750 million members, and its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been pitching it as a means of increasing public participation in the political process. Already some have used it to incite and facilitate street protests. Other more nefarious uses include dessiminating terrorist training materials, finding potential burglary targets out on vacation, and sometimes taking personal photos and information out of context. The Department of Homeland Security now monitors it for some 350 terms, per a 1/11 listing. Member privacy has been a major and recurring concern throughout Facebook's lifetime.

Facebook earned $1.9 billion in advertising revenue in 2010, and another 4200 million from revenue-sharing agreements with applications that run on the site (eg. games). Its 2010 Internet ad revenues exceeded those of newspapers by 2010 - 63% of advertising agencies report targeted ads (per online behavior) have increased their revenues. Facebook, however, makes up only 14.6% of the behavioral advertising market.

Cookies, Flash cookies, and zombie cookies collect user information and sell it to others; similarly, search engine logs help to improve searches and also target their (eg. Google) advertising results. Some companies/sites allow users to opt out of being tracked; however, if you don't know who they are, that's not going to happen. Further, many sites don't function properly unless the user accepts cookies, some opt-outs don't work as promised, and others are only temporary.

The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act makes it illegal to intentionally access a protected computer without authorization; transmitting and obtaining information from such sources are also illegal. However, an actionable violation must cause at least $5,000 in damages, which the author asserts is usually difficult to prove. Other laws are even less useful because they only require approval of the snooping etc. from the site doing it.

Author Lori Andrews is a law professor, hence the legal emphasis throughout the bulk of the book. Her going back to concerns about paparazzi-type actions by early Kodak camera users was one of the more interesting legal references.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling Yet Important Book January 14, 2012

By Verbtuoso

Format:Hardcover

As someone who is on Facebook many times every day, I read this book with a mixture of dread and rapt fascination. Andrews tells amazing, horrifying and incredible true stories of people who's lives have been altered forever by their presence on social networks. But more importantly, she provides a cogent prescription for how to make the web safer for all of us by presenting a Social Network Constitution. I think of this book often: especially every time I describe an interest of mine on the internet -- and seconds later see an ad for it.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars on point and long over-due January 28, 2012

By Bruce Patsner, M.D., J.D. Professor of Law Yonsei University

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

We are what we post, claims Andrews. She shows how the same power of social networks that can topple governments can also topple a person's career, marriage, or future. One woman lost custody of her child due to a sexy photo on Facebook. A 24-year-old teacher lost her job because one of her 700 vacation photos posted on the web showed her visiting a Guinness factory. Andrews shows how anyone who has ever use the internet to undertake a Google search, email a colleague, or join an organization is vulnerable to having that information used against him (or her). She provides specifics about what's at risk--and how people can protect themselves. The subject matter of Andrews' book could not be more timely; her concern for the invisible erosion of personal privacy rights is totally on point.