Surveillance, Privacy and Protection ...

With all of news lately about hacking and the CIA (see for example, articles in Wired or the New York Times), it seems appropriate to turn to a couple of new books on this subject:

THE ART OF INVISIBILITY by Kevin D. Mitnick, former hacker turned security consultant and author of Ghost on the Wires, maintains with his publisher that “your every step online is being tracked and stored, and your identity literally stolen.”  He uses real life examples that will likely alarm some readers and provides suggestions (using passphrases, two-factor authorization, VPN’s, etc.) for protecting privacy.  The insinuation of conspiracy-like activity by big government, corporate and other trackers has Mitnick explaining the pros/cons and misconceptions about devices such as burner phones. With over a dozen chapters (there is even one on wiretapping) and a roughly 15 page bibliography, THE ART OF INVISIBILITY provides some valuable insight for older teens and adults in a well-researched manner. 

EYES AND SPIES: HOW YOU'RE TRACKED AND WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW written by Tanya Lioyd Kyi and illustrated by Belle Wuthrich is a relatively short (135 page) text aimed at middle school and slightly older readers. It, too, has chapters on computer surveillance, data mining, and personal privacy, plus Kyi adds topics of interest to tweens and teens like cyberbullying.  The first few chapters, for example, explore the pros and cons of using RFID or GPS so that students can be tracked and parents know when they arrive at school. Other amply illustrated sections look into data collected when shopping.  EYES AND SPIES also has a further reading section and an extensive source list. School Library Journal’s review said that this should be “required reading for middle and high schoolers.”  It is certainly a starting point for discussion. There is much to ponder, and as the author notes, “the real questions aren’t whether technology helps or hinders surveillance, [or whether it] protects or endangers privacy.  The real questions are these: (1) How are societies going to use these new tools? And (2) Where do we … draw the line between privacy and protection?”  

Invisible Influence by Berger and The Inevitable by Kelly

If you are curious about understanding the present and predicting the future, then be sure to look for these two new non-fiction titles. 

Invisible Influence is written by Jonah Berger, associate professor of marketing at The Wharton School and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On.  Berger’s work is subtitled “The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior" and is very easy to read, filled with simple explanations or diagrams and plenty of examples along with memorable recaps such as “Monkey See, Monkey Do” for a section on mimicry, imitation and peer influence. Berger also includes chapters on differentiation and the tensions between familiarity and novelty.  Whether he is explaining research with cockroaches, modern art, or college students, Invisible Influence will appeal to our students with interests in decision-making, psychology and the social sciences – turns out “conformity” is important and not just to adolescents.  

While Berger is seeking to explain why we do what we do, Kevin Kelly predicts future technological trends in The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our Future. Kevin Kelly, Wired founding executive editor and author of 2010’s What Technology Wants, labels each chapter with a verb (e.g., flowing, cognifying, and remixing). In “Screening,” he devotes time to discussing the role of libraries.  Kelly says that “the link and the tag may be two of the most important inventions of the last 50 years.” Noting how reading becomes social, he asks what will happen when “all the books in the world become a single liquid fabric of connected words and ideas?”

I found myself starring numerous sections and concepts.  One example (in Accessing) is when Kelly quotes a TechCrunch reporter: “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles, Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content, Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory.  And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.  Something interesting is happening.” In yet another section (Questioning), Kelly recounts his initial skepticism in regards to Wikipedia, concluding, “Once you confront the fact that it works, you have to shift your expectation of what else there may be that is impossible in theory but might work in practice.”

Kelly raises some important points for us as teachers and for our students who are learning to be researchers when he says, “rather than receiving truth from an authority, I am reduced to assembling from the liquid stream of facts flowing through the web.”  He writes at length about how he actively begins a project – being less contemplative and “doing things. I immediately go.  I go looking, searching, asking questioning, reacting, leaping in, constructing notes, bookmarks, a trail – I start making something mine.” That is a mindset and pattern of behavior we need to encourage – not stifle - in our classes. I often tell students that it is so important how you ask the question and Kelly concurs, saying “answers become cheap and questions become valuable.” The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our Future includes extensive notes and is most definitely worth reading and pondering as we try to anticipate how technology is impacting our current and future behaviors.