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 Many Americans assume that their government does not monitor them as closely as authoritarian governments, but that is simply not true. After the 9/11 attacks, domestic surveillance increased exponentially in the name of national security, and many Americans continue to believe that providing unlimited access to their data is necessary to be a dutiful citizen. However, attorney and data privacy expert Heidi Boghosian argues that the ongoing effects of increased surveillance do not protect Americans from attack, but rather makes them even more vulnerable. Boghosian unpacks the widespread myths around data privacy and data mining and sets the record straight about what government agencies and corporations do with our personal data and what we can do to protect ourselves. Before the 2016 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica harvested data from 50 million Americans on Facebook without their consent - creating hyper-targeted ads that were designed influence voter behavior. Law enforcement agencies have drawn upon personal data to cobble together criminal charges against civil rights and antiwar activists for decades- and as recently as 2020, police have used social media usage to target and press charges against Black Lives Matter protesters. In this book, Boghosian breaks down the misinformation surrounding 21 core issues of data privacy, including: - No one wants to spy on kids
- Police don't monitor social media
- The USA doesn't spy as much as authoritarian regimes
- There's nothing I can do to stop surveillance. I Have Nothing to Hide is a necessary overview into mass surveillance for anyone who is searching to better understand what data is being collected, who is collecting it, and why it matters.