Exploding Data

May 14, 2018
Chertoff, former federal appeals court judge and secretary of homeland security from 2005 to 2009, argues bluntly in this useful overview of the scope and implications of the data revolution that the general notion of privacy, as “the ability to hide or shield our actions and thoughts from prying eyes” is too narrow a value. In a world governed by data analytics, Chertoff asserts, “what we can and should care about is the broader value of autonomy, which is at the very core of freedom.” He makes clear the alarming extent that personal autonomy—“the freedom to make personal choices that affect our values and our destiny”—is in jeopardy today and the necessary legal changes needed to retain it. He begins with the basics of how digital communications work and then provides a history of surveillance in America. Wireless internet access, smart phones, and cloud storage have rapidly increased the rate of data collection and analysis in the private sector, allowing companies to sell targeted ads and, more significantly, assess the behavior of individual users and then sell that information to other companies for purposes like insurance provider pricing. Chertoff proposes common-sense recommendations as to how laws should change to keep pace with evolving technology, advocating for stronger restrictions on government and corporate “analysis,
dissemination and use” of data. This book works as both a Big Data primer and a clear-sighted road map for legislative changes from a previous high-profile proponent of government surveillance.

May 15, 2018
The former Secretary of Homeland Security surveys the brave new world of data collection and analysis and finds that both the legal system and international relations have yet to keep pace with technology.Chertoff (Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years, 2009), who has also served as a judge and a prosecutor, contrasts the present day with earlier eras when there was more of a strong distinction between public and private. An invasion of privacy once meant encroaching on one's property, but technology has dissolved any expectation of privacy or even a sense of who is doing the encroaching and what is being encroached upon. We share our information freely despite the consequences, we depend on smartphones that track us everywhere and lack adequate safeguards, and we invite devices into our homes to monitor our preferences and activities. In an era of facial-recognition software, laws reflect the days when surveillance was by camera (before every phone had one) or phone tapping (on landlines). "When technology has dramatically expanded the ability to monitor activities in a previously unrecognizable way, we need a new set of laws," writes the author, whose current company offers security consulting. He continues, "Inevitably, this will require tradeoffs between different values: privacy, autonomy, security, and the individual versus the collective interest." Chertoff shows how such an initiative is necessary as well as extremely challenging, as the internet transcends borders of nations that have very different attitudes toward individual rights and as the process involves different stages of collecting and analyzing data, by governments and commercial concerns alike. Though the writing rarely rises above workmanlike, the author's experience in these areas runs deep, and he shows reasons for concern in areas many readers might not have considered. "We frequently trade away our data for a short-term convenience or lower-cost gratification without realizing the long-term consequences," he warns--until our insurance companies start monitoring our grocery purchases and restaurant preferences to determine how healthy our diets are.The world of data as illuminated here would have scared George Orwell.

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Starred review from July 1, 2018

Former secretary of Homeland Security (2005-09) Chertoff (Homeland Security: Assessing the First Five Years) chronicles what he defines as the three periods of data gathering. Data 1.0 covers information collection prior to automated recording devices, i.e., cameras, telephones, and tape recorders; 2.0 refers to the time after the invention of photography and telephony. Under present Data 3.0 architecture, all information linked to the Internet can be viewed by anyone with web access. The default setting has changed from private to public, "with indefinite retention." Even the most stringent protective measures--short of Dark Web browser-masking, but that's another story--can be breached. Cyber warfare is borderless, and Chertoff notes that U.S. infrastructure could be attacked by an anonymous enemy with a thumb-drive in some Texas cybercafe. Given the author's experience, readers might expect him to follow the government and intelligence community line. Not so. He advocates, for the greater public good, a secure communications infrastructure protected by ubiquitous encryption at the device, server, and enterprise level without building in means for government monitoring. What's actually at stake isn't simply loss of privacy but individual autonomy--personal choices unfettered by manipulation and force. VERDICT A tremendous resource for any reader about ever-shifting threats embedded in data collection and control.--William Grabowski, McMechen, WV

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