Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State

Journalist Tau debuts with a chilling chronicle of how data collection efforts by corporate and government entities have created a “digital panopticon.” In the weeks after 9/11, data broker Acxiom realized the information it collected on credit card purchases and places of residence, intended to inform targeted advertising, could also be used to recreate the movements of the attackers. The company teamed up with the U.S. government, kickstarting the latter’s attempts to build up its own data mining efforts, with help from private contractors. Tau offers novelistic accounts of this and other major milestones in the erosion of data privacy. For instance, he explains that when National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency analyst Katie Zezima mapped calls for help on Twitter to pinpoint areas in peril following the 2011 earthquake in Japan, she led one of the first government initiatives to draw “actionable information” from social media, raising legal questions that bureaucrats swept aside after realizing the data’s utility. Other stories are even more alarming, such as the use of social media by police in Ferguson, Mo., to monitor racial justice protestors in 2014 and the NSA’s breaking into Google’s network despite the company’s compliance with government investigations. Filled with shocking revelations and first-rate reporting, this will have readers thinking twice before they post. Agent: Eric Lupfer, UTA. (Feb.)