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Simson L. Garfinkel
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Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century 1st Edition

by Simson Garfinkel (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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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 media to maintain its power. Those who worry about personal privacy and identity--especially in this day of technologies that encroach upon these rights--still use Orwell's "Big Brother" language to discuss privacy issues. But the reality is that the age of a monolithic Big Brother is over. And yet the threats are perhaps even more likely to destroy the rights we've assumed were ours. Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century shows how, in these early years of the 21st century, advances in technology endanger our privacy in ways never before imagined. Direct marketers and retailers track our every purchase; surveillance cameras observe our movements; mobile phones will soon report our location to those who want to track us; government eavesdroppers listen in on private communications; misused medical records turn our bodies and our histories against us; and linked databases assemble detailed consumer profiles used to predict and influence our behavior. Privacy--the most basic of our civil rights--is in grave peril. Simson Garfinkel--journalist, entrepreneur, and international authority on computer security--has devoted his career to testing new technologies and warning about their implications. This newly revised update of the popular hardcover edition of Database Nation is his compelling account of how invasive technologies will affect our lives in the coming years. It's a timely, far-reaching, entertaining, and thought-provoking look at the serious threats to privacy facing us today. The book poses a disturbing question: how can we protect our basic rights to privacy, identity, and autonomy when technology is making invasion and control easier than ever before? Garfinkel's captivating blend of journalism, storytelling, and futurism is a call to arms. It will frighten, entertain, and ultimately convince us that we must take action now to protect our privacy and identity before it's too late.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0596001053
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0596001056
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  5. Publication date
    January 9, 2001
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.96 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    336 pages
  9. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
37 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • David Hawkins
    5.0 out of 5 stars Visionary
    Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Simson strikes again! Once again Simson is ahead of his time and exactly correct with the problems we're seeing in an electronic and record based society. Very well organized, sourced and written.
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  • Frank Lynch
    4.0 out of 5 stars A challenge to your complacency.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2001
    Verified Purchase
    Garfinkel cover a wide variety of territory here, and you may not feel that all areas are an issue for you. The territory includes significant breaches, credit reports, health records & insurance forms, as well as direct marketing lists and practices. Garfinkel stresses that the issues are not just privacy-related, but also data integrity - - bad enough that others have access to the truth about your history, but mistakes in the data quickly get replicated throughout the business world.
    You may not have a problem, for instance, with insurance companies asking you to allow them to share information, if you feel it increases the efficiency of the market. You may not have a problem with targeted marketing, which is built on customer profiles. However, after reading this book you'll have a better sense of the issues.
    One anecdote was very effective, I thought, in challenging complacency on these issues. I have heard a number of people say their privacy won't be violated because their lives are too boring. Garfinkel tells a story that demonstrates how people who have too little to do will glom on information just because the information is there, whether or not it has practical value. He has a story about an office web camera focusing on the coffee pot; the camera is there so those coming downstairs to get coffee can manage their expectations and will know in advance whether or not they will have to make a fresh pot. Yet this picture of this innocent coffee pot gets heavy web traffic every day, from people who have nothing better to do than look at a coffee pot. So, being boring is not sufficient protection against the idly curious; less so against those with malicious intent.
    One person found this helpful
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  • englishpaulm
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome walk through privacy past and futures
    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2000
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding one of the defining issues in computing
    Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2000
    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 marketing, but doesn't provide the details of how the reader can do this; Simson recounts that people are able to get their credit records or medical records from MIB, but then doesn't provide any information on how to get them or who to contact; and although he sets forth a legislative agenda for government, he fails to note realistic steps that the reader can take to help move that agenda forward. I suspect that many people will finish reading this book with a strong sense of wanting to *do* something, but they will not have any guidance as to where to go or who to talk with.
    The book has over 20 pages of comprehensive endnotes and WWW references for the reader interested in further details. These URLs do include pointers to many important sources of information on privacy and law, but with a few puzzling omissions: I didn't see references to resources such as EPIC or Lauren Weinstein's Privacy digest outside of the fine print in the endnotes. I also didn't note references to ACM's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conferences, the USACM, or a number of other useful venues and supporters of privacy and advocacy. Robert Ellis Smith's "Privacy Journal" is mentioned in the text, but there is no information given as to how to subscribe it it. And so on.
    I also noted that the book doesn't really discuss much of the international privacy scene, including issues of law and culture that complicate our domestic solutions. However, the book is intended for a U.S. audience, so this is somewhat understandable. A few other topics -- such as workplace monitoring -- are similarly given more abbreviated coverage than every reader might wish. Overall, I recognized few of those.
    On the plus side, the book is very readable, with great examples and anecdotes, and a clear sense of urgency. Although it is obvious that Simson is not an impartial party on these topics, he does present many of the conflicting viewpoints to illustrate the complexity of the issues. For instance, he presents data on the need for wiretaps and criminal investigation, along with accounts and descriptions of bioterrorism, including interviews with FBI officials, to illustrate why there are people of good faith who want to be able to monitor telephone conversations and email. If anything, this increases the impact of the book -- it is not an account of bad people with evil intent, but a description of what happens when ideas reasonable to a small group have consequences beyond their imagining -- or immediate concern. The death of privacy is one of a thousand cuts, each one small and seemingly made for a good reason.
    Simson has committed to adding important information to the WWW site for the book (<[...] Many (or most) of the items I have noted above will likely be addressed at the WWW site before long. Simson also has informed me that the publisher will be making corrections and some additions to future editions of the book if he deems them important. This is great news for those of us who will use the book as an classroom text, or if we recommend the book to policy makers on an on-going basis. Those of us with older copies will need to keep the URL on our bookmark list.
    Overall, I was very pleased with the book. I read it all in one sitting, on a flight cross-country, and found it an easy read. I have long been interested in (and involved in) activities in protection of privacy, so I have seen and read most of the sources Simson references. Still, I learned a number of things from reading the book that I didn't already know -- Simson has done a fine job of presenting historical and ancillary context to his narrative without appearing overly pedantic.
    This is a book I intend to recommend to all of my graduate students and colleagues. I only wish there was some way to get all of our elected officials to read it, too. I believe that everyone who values some sense of private life should be aware of these issues, and this book is a great way to learn about them. I suggest you go out and buy a copy -- but pay in cash instead of with a credit card, take mass transit to the store instead of your personal auto, and don't look directly into the video cameras behind the checkout counter. Once you read the book, you'll be glad you did.
    34 people found this helpful
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  • steppingonlegos
    5.0 out of 5 stars how Much IS Big Brother Watching?
    Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2005
    This is an older book, but one that I specifically requested after reading books like Myth of Homeland Security by Marcus Ranum and Beyond Fear by Bruce Schneier. While those books related directly to homeland or national security in the wake of the 9/11 attack this book predates the attack but describes an Orwellian society where Big Brother monitors everything and privacy is a facade.

    When I was in high school I read George Orwell's 1984. It is a work of fiction, but in many ways present society and technology have surpassed Orwell's vision. Simson Garfinkel paints a chilling picture of the complete lack of privacy today because we have the technology to store and retrieve almost every transaction and occurrence that goes on in our lives.

    When you make a cell phone call records are kept of the area you called from and the number you called. When you make a purchase with a credit card or ATM/Debit card you create a record of where you were at a specific time and date as well as what you purchased. Medical records tell a lot about a person and are not as protected as people believe. A recent Supreme Court decision essentially states that an ISP can legally intercept and view your email without violating wiretap laws. Common, everyday activities capture and store minute details about your life.

    This book offers few solutions, but does an excellent job of describing the problem in a compelling way. Everyone should read this book to learn what a facade your privacy really is.

    (...)
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Serkan
    5.0 out of 5 stars All best
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on October 11, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I ordered from the Netherlands, mail came really quick (within 5 weeks) all the way from the states in perfect condition. The shop owners mail almost within 24 hours. Keep it goin’!
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  • Marcia Azevedo Moreira
    4.0 out of 5 stars Danger out there!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this book after reading some pages here in the amazon because i was doing a university work about Privacy. I have to say that the book is really interesting, not boring at all and has some interesting facts that i had no idea.
    Buy it if your doing a research on the topic or even if you are just a little bit curious, you wont regret.
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