Books that every person concerned about privacy should read (List of recommendations)

General
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I thought it would be interesting, in addition to promoting online security and privacy, to cultivate academically and philosophically those interested who come to the forum at least. I am not a hungry reader, but I am always dedicating part of my time to reading, and that habit has opened many doubts and closed many others, and nowadays I can’t help myself from a state of reflection and perpetual criticism.
The idea, then, is basically to make a mini list of books that we would recommend to open the mind and cultivate the mind.

For my part I recommend the following books:
The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich A. Hayek
The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat
Anatomy of the State, by Murray N. Rothbard
Permanent Record, by Edward Snowden
No Place to Hide, by Glenn Greenwald
And finally, The Classical Liberal Case for Privacy in a World of Surveillance and Technological Change, by Chris Berg

I invite you to reply to this thread with your recommended readings. Best regards.

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I can’t speak for it yet, but a friend recommended me The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, by Shoshana Zuboff. I’ve heard good things! :+1:

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I have so many about Privacy and Security!

  1. Privacy is Power—Carissa Véliz

  2. Digital Exhaust Opt-Out Guide—FBI/DOJ

  3. PerSec of First Responders in the Digital Age—Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT)

  4. Open Source Intelligence Techniques—Michael Bazzell

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3 more books:
The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet, by David Kahn.
Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government–Saving Privacy in the Digital Age, by Steven Levy
The New Technologies of Freedom, by Chris Berg, Darcy Allen and Sinclair Davis

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Dark Mirror by Barton Gellman. Think of it as a companion book to Snowden’s book.

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A great, unfortunately Polish-only book “Suicide of Enlightenment? How Neuroscience and New Technologies Devastate the Human World.” by Andrzej Zybertowicz

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Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow is another good one

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Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil
Automating Humanity, Joe Toscano
Race After Technology, Ruha Benjamin
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, Safiya Noble

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Adding to the list:

  • There’s A War Going On But No One Can See It by Huib Modderkolk
  • Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell
  • Everyday Cryptography by Keith Martin
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Not a book, but if it’s available to you, I recommend watching this…

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From the classics: I think everyone should have read 1984 by George Orwell.
Dystopian society with a nightmarish privacy situation in part already outdated by current events - which makes it even scarier.

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Thank you for this! I’ve just added several to my list.

To build off of this, what are some book recommendations/resources for learning more technical aspects of privacy (like how cybersecurity, E2EE, and browsers work, etc.)? I imagine textbooks might be a popular response, but I’d also like to know if there are other books/blogs/etc. that might explain things more simply for people without a programming/developing background.

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Would recommend to start with network security as a topic. But go to uni :slight_smile:

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I’m currently reading “This machine kill secrets” by Andy Greenberg.
Not 100% on the topic of privacy but it’s a great book of investigative journalism talking about leaks (Pentagon papers, cryptography, Tor, cypherpunk, cryptome, WikiLeaks, openleaks, etc.).

He goes in great technically depth about cryptography, symmetric and asymmetric, PGP, anonymity networks, Tor.

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Carissa Véliz makes the most convincing argument for privacy out there. If you only read one book on privacy, make it hers.

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Someone should use chat gpt to get key points of these books like in this reddit (*hiss) post .
https://www.teddit.net/r/ChatGPT/comments/14elgw9/how_i_use_chatgpt_to_read_and_remember_any_book/
I haven’t tried it yet. but looks good.

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Don’t read Snowden’s Permanent Record unless you want turn into a paranoid and loose sleep for 3 nights. :joy:

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Yes I agree, or at least after reading Snowden’s Permanent Record, keep a sceptical mind and read these:

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Purism is a untrustworthy company https://www.trustpilot.com/review/puri.sm

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Is this really Edward Snowden’s favorite laptop?

Did he ever said it?