“The public conversation about surveillance in the digital age would be a good deal more intelligent if we all read Bruce Schneier first.” (Malcolm Gladwell)
“Bruce Schneier has written a hugely insightful and important book about how big data and its cousin, mass surveillance, affect our lives, and what to do about it. In characteristic fashion, Schneier takes very complex and varied information and ideas and makes them vivid, accessible, and compelling.” (Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice under George W. Bush)
“Schneier did not need the Snowden revelations, as important as they are, to understand the growing threat to personal privacy worldwide from government and corporate surveillance—he's been raising the alarm for nearly two decades. But this important book does more than detail the threat; it tells the average low-tech citizen what steps he or she can take to limit surveillance and thus fight those who are seeking to strip privacy from all of us.” (Seymour M. Hersh, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist)
“A pithy, pointed, and highly readable explanation of what we know in the wake of the Snowden revelations, with practical steps that ordinary people can take if they want to do something about the threats to privacy and liberty posed not only by the government but by the Big Data industry.” (Neal Stephenson, author of Reamde)
“Schneier exposes the many and surprising ways governments and corporations monitor all of us, providing a must-read User’s Guide to Life in the Data Age. His recommendations for change should be part of a much-needed public debate.” (Richard A. Clarke, former chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and author of Cyber War)
“As it becomes increasingly clear that surveillance has surpassed anything that Orwell imagined, we need a guide to how and why we’re being snooped and what we can do about it. Bruce Schneier is that guide—step by step he outlines the various ways we are being monitored, and after scaring the pants off us, he tells us how to fight back.” (Steven Levy, editor-in-chief of Backchannel and author of Crypto and Hackers)
“A judicious and incisive analysis of one of the most pressing new issues of our time, written by a true expert.” (Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature)
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Data and Goliath is sorely needed. On top of the ongoing avalanche of stories of cyberwarfare, data breaches, and corporate snooping, the Snowden revelations have left many people confused and cynical about protecting their own privacy. My hope is that Bruce Schneier's new book will empower people to join the conversation in the courts and elsewhere about how to think seriously and honestly about our current digital surveillance state and more importantly, how to build a digital society run by the consent of the governed.” (Cindy Cohn, Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
“The internet is a surveillance state, and like any technology, surveillance has both good and bad uses. Bruce Schneier draws on his vast range of technical and historical skills to sort them out. He analyzes both the challenge of big brother and many little brothers. Anyone interested in security, liberty, privacy, and justice in this cyber age must read this book.” (Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and author of The Future of Power)
“Bruce Schneier is the most consistently sober, authoritative, and knowledgeable voice on security and privacy issues in our time. This book brings his experience and sharp analytical skills to important and fast-evolving technology and human rights issues. Much has been said about the way our government, financial institutions, and online entities gather data, but less is said about how that seemingly infinite ocean of data is used, or might be used. In the face of a vast spectrum of possibility, clouded in secrecy, Bruce's book is a voice of steady reason.” (Xeni Jardin, co-editor of BoingBoing)
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Data and Goliath is the indispensable guide to understanding the most important current threat to freedom in democratic market societies. Whether you worry about government surveillance in the post-Snowden era, or about Facebook and Google manipulating you based on their vast data collections, Schneier, the leading, truly independent expert writing about these threats today, offers a rich overview of the technologies and practices leading us toward surveillance society and the diverse solutions we must pursue to save us from that fate.” (Yochai Benkler, Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and author of The Wealth of Networks)
“Data, algorithms, and thinking machines give our corporations and political institutions immense and far reaching powers. Bruce Schneier has done a remarkable job of breaking down their impact on our privacy, our lives, and our society.
Data and Goliath should be on everyone's must read list.” (Om Malik, founder of Gigaom)
