THE PRIVATE IS POLITICAL: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism, what to pay attention to in order to stop "Them"

THE PRIVATE IS POLITICAL: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
RAY BRESCIA
NYU Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$35.00 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Exposes the threats to our personal and political identity in the age of surveillance

It has become alarmingly clear that our online actions are less private than we’re led to believe. Our data is routinely sold and shared with companies who want to sell us something, political actors who want to analyze our behavior, and law enforcement who seek to limit our actions.

The Private is Political explores the failure of existing legal systems and institutions to protect our online presence and identities. Examining the ways in which the digital space is under threat from both governments and private actors, Ray Brescia reveals how the rise of private surveillance prevents individuals from organizing with others who might help to catalyze change in their lives. Brescia argues that we are not far from a world where surveillance chills not just our speech, but our very identities. This will ultimately stifle our ability to live full lives, realize democracy, and even shape the laws that affect our privacy itself.

Beyond merely identifying the harms to individuals from privacy violations, Brescia furthers our understanding of privacy by identifying and naming political privacy and the integrity of identity as central to democracy.

The Private is Political empowers consumers by outlining a roadmap for a comprehensive privacy regime, leveraging various institutions to collectively safeguard privacy rights.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Author Ray Brescia is well-known for his activities in public-interest legal matters. If anyone knows, from long professional experience, what "Their" endgame is with the surveillance-capitalism regime we have so blithely and unthinkingly accepted, it is him.

His chosen format of shorter chapters that read like trimmed law-journal essays, copious notes, and a solid, real-world grounding in where and why there are leverage points on both sides of his argument, Author Brescia is doing everyone on the internet a huge favor. While we have been dreading state surveillance, corporations sell us the very tools that, in state hands, would have the MAGAts in the streets. Google is not a state entity, but arguably has even more data about you than Amazon. Both want to pick your pockets after picking your brain so hard there's little left in it they do not directly know, or can with high confidence infer.

Author Brescia's gift is laying out the steps of gaining his knowledge. He understands the systems of lawmaking and enforcement, sees the careful designs for encroaching on our personal autonomy, and leads the reader along as he pulls aside decades of distracting obfuscation to show us what the plan truly is.

There might still be time to heed Author Brescia's warnings. I'll leave it to you to spend your time, even your treasure if you have it, learning some pressure points you can use or demand your legislators use.