Julia Angwin, Dragnet Nation (2014)
Angwin’s book is a very accessible and engaging account about the collection and use of personal data. She has a knack for finding ways to describe privacy, surveillance, online tracking, and other issues in vivid and relatable ways. These issues can be abstract and challenging, but Angwin is great at creating compelling stories and making…
Danah Boyd, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (2014)
Danah Boyd brings us into the minds of teenagers using social media. She is a great listener and an astute observer. Her observations are sophisticated and rich with insight. This book is the culmination of her many years of research and interviews, of a passion to understand teenage thought and behavior. She is an anthropologist…
Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (2014)
For those of us who followed intently as the saga of Edward Snowden and the NSA played out in 2013, this book is still valuable because it pulls together all the information and serves as a useful chronicle. The book is written in an advocacy style; I prefer a more detached journalistic style. The book…
Michelle Finneran Dennedy, Jonathan Fox, and Thomas R. Finneran, The Privacy Engineer’s Manifesto (2014)
I’ve read a lot of practical “how to” stuff about privacy before that’s vague and not very specific, but this book is so refreshingly detailed, has great depth, and is concrete. It’s a real achievement, and a book that deserves attention. The book has concrete examples and applications of its approach, and it is immensely…
Rebecca Herold and Kevin Beaver, The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance (2014)
This is a terrific guide to HIPAA. Unlike many other resources on HIPAA, which discuss the law rather abstractly, The Practical Guide situates HIPAA in practice and discuss a lot more than HIPAA’s dictates. They show how to implement HIPAA and build an effective compliance program. The book provides concrete examples, tips, checklists, and many…
J.C. Cannon, Privacy and Technology: Standards and Practices for Engineers and Security and IT Professionals (2014)
This is a clear and concise guide for technologists to understand privacy and implement it into IT and design. Cannon discusses issues in a concrete way, with examples and specific details. He effectively translates the often vague language of privacy into ways that IT professionals can understand and implement.
Danielle Citron, Hate Crimes in Cyberspace (2014)
In this is a bold and provocative book, Citron presents vivid accounts about online harassment. The stories she relates involve comments and behavior so vile and mean that her book could readily be an anthology of horror stories. But this book is a lot more than stories, for Citron examines why certain types of law…
Adam Shostack, Threat Modeling: Designing for Security (2014)
Practical and comprehensive guide to anticipating and addressing threats when designing software and technology