PRIVACY IS POWER

An Economist BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR As the data economy grows in power Carissa Véliz exposes how our privacy is eroded by big tech and governments why that matters and what we can do about it The moment you check your phone in the morning you are giving away your data Before you ve even switched off your alarm a whole host of organisations have been alerted to when you woke up where you slept and with whom As you check the weather scroll through your suggested friends on Facebook you continually compromise your privacy Without your permission or even your awareness tech companies are harvesting your information your location your likes your habits and sharing it amongst themselves They re not just selling your data They re selling the power to influence you Even when you ve explicitly asked them not to And it s not just you It s all your contacts too Digital technology is stealing our personal data and with it our power to make free choices To reclaim that power and democracy we must protect our privacy What can we do So much is at stake Our phones our TVs even our washing machines are spies in our own homes We need new regulation We need to pressure policy makers for red lines on the data economy And we need to stop sharing an