"I Have Nothing to Hide": And 20 Other Myths about Surveillance and Privacy

An accessible guide that breaks down the complex issues around mass surveillance and data privacy and explores the negative consequences it can have on individual citizens and their communities.

No one is exempt from data mining: by owning a smartphone, or using social media or a credit card, we hand over private data to corporations and the government. We need to understand how surveillance and data collection operates in order to regain control over our digital freedoms--and our lives.

Attorney and data privacy expert Heidi Boghosian unpacks widespread myths around the seemingly innocuous nature of surveillance, sets the record straight about what government agencies and corporations do with our personal data, and offers solutions to take back our information. "I Have Nothing to Hide" is both a necessary mass surveillance overview and a reference book. It addresses the misconceptions around tradeoffs between privacy and security, citizen spying, and the ability to design products with privacy protections. Boghosian breaks down misinformation surrounding 21 core myths about data privacy, including:

- "Surveillance makes the nation safer."
- "No one wants to spy on kids."
- "Police don't monitor social media."
- "Metadata doesn't reveal much about me."
- "Congress and the courts protect us from surveillance."
- "There's nothing I can do to stop surveillance."

By dispelling myths related to surveillance, this book helps readers better understand what data is being collected, who is gathering it, how they're doing it, and why it matters.

Author: Heidi Boghosian
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 07/13/2021
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.30w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780807061268


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/03/2021

About the Author
Heidi Boghosian is an attorney and co-host of Law & Disorder Radio. She is executive director of the A.J. Muste Institute, a charitable foundation supporting activist organizations. She was previously executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Boghosian has written numerous articles and reports on policing and activism, and is the author of Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance. She received her JD from Temple Law School where she was editor in chief of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review.