Category Archives: Books (PSA)

Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman, Of Privacy and Power: The Transatlantic Struggle over Freedom and Security (2019)

From Peter Swire (Georgia Institute of Technology): “This book persuasively argues that substate actors, including interior ministries and data protection officials, form international networks to accomplish internationally what they cannot win domestically. The clearest value of the book comes from its diverse case studies. The discussion of the 2000 Safe Harbor for commercial transfers of…

Edward Snowden, Permanent Record (2019)

From The New York Times: “A riveting account… Reads like a literary thriller… Snowden pushes the reader to reflect more seriously on what every American should be asking already. What does it mean to have the data of our lives collected and stored on file, ready to be accessed―not just now, by whatever administration happens to…

Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age (2019)

From Tim Wu (author of The Curse of Bigness): “Tools and Weapons reads like a techno-legal thriller, yet offers a thorough and eye-opening account of the major tech controversies of the last decade, from NSA spying through AI ethics and the US-China standoff. Brad Smith, a believer that “great power brings great responsibility” makes it evident that the…

Nora A. Draper, The Identity Trade: Selling Privacy and Reputation Online (2019)

From Siva Vaidhyanathan (author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy): “While we have been obsession over the ways Facebook and Google have blown away our ability to manage information about ourselves, a fascinating and troubling industry devoted to privacy management has emerged. In this lucid book, Draper reveals the assumptions and ideologies…

Deborah Lupton, Data Selves: More-than-Human Perspectives (2019)

From David Lyon (Queen’s University, Canada): “An exciting study of human-data interactions in a digital era. From digitized pregnancy to worries about the surveillant use of personal data by third parties, there’s much here to stimulate debate. A must-read marker for digital sociology in the twenty-first century.”

Kate Fazzini, Kingdom of Lies: Unnerving Adventures in the World of Cybercrime (2019)

From The Times (UK): “Written almost like a novel, Kingdom of Lies, offers a vivid account of how these gangs of black hat hackers spreading from Romania to China extort money from individuals like me and the most powerful Wall Street banks, and how the white hats are trying to stop these people who can halt global…

Jill Elaine Hasday, Intimate Lies and the Law (2019)

From Randall Kennedy (Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School): “In Intimate Lies and the Law, Jill Hasday maps a big, fascinating, sobering subject: the law’s regulation (including neglect) of deceptions amongst those closest to us. She explores this difficult terrain masterfully with verve, thoroughness, and a keen eye for the telling detail. She…

Theodore Franklin Claypoole, Law of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Machines: Understanding A.I. and the Legal Impact (2018)

From the book description: “How will the law change to accommodate the role of artificial intelligence in society and how much of that change has occurred already? When machines make their own decisions with financial impact, who receives credit or blame? This new guide provides an in-depth examination of how artificial intelligence has evolved, how…

Jeff Kosseff, The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet (2019)

From Eric Goldman (Professor of Law, Santa Clara University): “Most people benefit from Section 230 every hour, but are unaware it even exists. Jeff Kosseff’s new book provides the first-ever comprehensive history of this monumentally important law. The book’s lucid and reader-friendly style will fully engage Section 230 newcomers; while the book’s many never-before-publicized details…

Mary Anne Franks, The Cult of the Constitution (2019)

From Danielle Citron (Professor of Law, Boston University Law Schoool): “Mary Anne Franks’s book–in the most thoughtful and engrossing way–takes on central problems of our time. How can we reconcile the Constitution’s aspirations with its founders’ experiences and commitments? Is a document written for the most privileged up to the task of a 21st digital…