The TOP 21 Books in Privacy & Data Protection That You Must Read ASAP

Photo by Kimberly Farmer

Are you looking for privacy books to read? These are the TOP 21 books about Privacy & Data Protection (in English) that I've encountered so far. The list is not in order of preference. 

1- Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies by @hartzog. [To understand how technology - software, hardware, algorithm & design - is not neutral: it can easily manipulate us and negatively affect our privacy].

2- Re-Engineering Humanity by @BrettFrischmann & @EvanSelinger. [To understand what happens when we get too fascinated by big data, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence and forget the importance of human autonomy and freedom].

3- No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by @ggreenwald. [To realize that surveillance is everywhere and yes, maybe you have something to hide].

4- Privacy and Freedom by Alan Westin. [To read from the source and learn where the philosophical groundwork for the current debates about technology and personal freedom came from].

5- Why Privacy Matters by @neilmrichards. [To learn - from Richard's extreme intellectual clarity - how privacy is about power and fundamental social values].

6- Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life by @HNissenbaum . [To learn that when trying to understand privacy, contextual norms and flows of information matter].

7- Understanding Privacy by @DanielSolove. [To have a clear and concise framework to understand the multiple phenomena that can be described as privacy issues].

8- The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by @superwuster. [To get to know the attention economy and how the exploitation of our time and focus also impacts our privacy and identity].

9- The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information by @FrankPasquale. [To learn how organizations benefit from low scrutiny on code and algorithms to exploit our privacy].

10- Why Privacy Isn't Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability by @Lawprofaallen. [To learn how privacy is connected to topics such as accountability and how an individual is inserted in his or her community].

11- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by @shoshanazuboff. [To understand what surveillance capitalism is and how it is shaping the future - online and offline].

12- Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power by @ariezrawaldman. [To understand how the tech industry can manipulate how we think about privacy].

13- Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism by @julie17usc. [To learn what is behind the architecture of today's information flows and how law and power structures interplay].

14- The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age by @daniellecitron. [To understand the challenges of defending privacy in the twenty-first century and how we should be fighting for intimate privacy as a civil right].

15- Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by @schneierblog. [To have a good overview of how privacy and cybersecurity interplay and how surveillance is everywhere].

16- Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace by @lessig. [To learn the foundations of how code, social norms, and regulation interplay]

17- The Onlife Manifesto: Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era by @Floridi (editor) [To have a deep philosophical background on how technology affects us as individuals].

18- Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by @katecrawford. [To understand the social, economic, and political dimensions of artificial intelligence].

19- Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age by @Viktor_MS. [To understand how we must adapt, as humans, in a world of perfect remembering in the digital age].

20- Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk by @mireillemoret. [To understand where code and law meet and the theoretical underpinnings of technical aspects involved in privacy and data protection].

21- Your Privacy Is Important to U$! – Restoring Human Dignity in Data-Driven Marketing by Jan Trzaskowski. [To understand how data protection, consumer law, and marketing law can work together to help support data subjects in today's digital economy].

💡Thoughts?

Have you read any of these books? Do you think there is a book missing? Privacy needs critical thinkers like you: share this article and start a conversation about the topic.

See you next week. All the best, Luiza Jarovsky