Privacy, and How to Get It Back

In this collection of essays first published between 2015 and 2017, Mendelson (Social Media Is Bullshit) provides a casual introduction to the challenge of maintaining privacy in the digital age. He holds forth in what he terms “an intentionally exaggerated and aggressive” writing style chosen “to educate and entertain.” The book both outlines individual actions readers can take—subscribing to a credit monitoring service, updating passwords regularly—and briefly mentions systemic changes that could protect privacy: he calls for individuals to be paid license fees in exchange for their data being used to develop products and marketing strategies, and suggests that concerned citizens focus on local and state regulations, rather than relying on the federal government to protect consumers. For readers who haven’t engaged with the issue before and aren’t aware of how their online data is being used by private companies for profit, Mendelson’s book will be an eye-opener. (BookLife)