Short description:

Paul Bernal addresses the issue of privacy on the internet and how it is challenged in a wide variety of ways – from large social media companies, whose entire business models are based on privacy invasion, through the developing technologies of facial recognition and the internet of things, to the desire of governments to monitor our every activity online.

Long description:

Privacy on the internet is challenged in a wide variety of ways - from large social media companies, whose entire business models are based on privacy invasion, through the developing technologies of facial recognition, to the desire of governments to monitor our every activity online. But the impact these issues have on our daily lives is often underplayed or misunderstood.



In this book, Paul Bernal analyses how the internet became what it is today, exploring how the current manifestation of the internet works for people, for companies and even for governments, with reference to the new privacy battlefields of location and health data, the internet of things and the increasingly contentious issue of personal data and political manipulation. The author then proposes what we should do about the problems surrounding internet privacy, such as significant changes in government policy, a reversal of the current ‘war’ on encryption, being brave enough to take on the internet giants, and challenging the idea that ‘real names’ would improve the discourse on social networks.



Written by leading social scientists, the What Do We Know and What Should We Do About...? series offers concise, up-to-date overviews of issues often oversimplified, misrepresented or misunderstood and shows you how to enact change.



"Short, sharp and compelling." - Alex Preston, The Observer



"If you want to learn a lot about what matters most, in as short a time as possible, this is the series for you."- Danny Dorling, 1971 Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

If you want to learn a lot about what matters most, in as short a time as possible, this is the series for you.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Background
Chapter 3: What do we know?
Chapter 4: What should we do?
Chapter 5: Conclusion