how to be a private citizen

None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age by Lawrence Cappello

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: non-fiction, law

Review: Cappello gives us an in-depth look at various types of privacy and the debate surrounding it in the US.  He's particularly skilled at showing the links between the different kinds of privacy (from organization privacy through to decisional privacy) and the importance of viewing privacy as a full spectrum, rather than trying to isolate one kind of privacy from another.  He also notes that giving up certain aspects of privacy over the years in the name of national security seemed like a good idea at the time, but points out that once given up, those rights are awfully hard to get back.

Although the writing is dense, it is far from dry, as the author's wit and sense of humor peek through often.  This book is excellent for anyone interested in the history of the debate over privacy.

not as effective as it should have been

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, YA

Review: Doctorow had all the right ideas in writing this book. Through his fictionalized account of a terrorist attack on San Francisco's Bay Bridge and BART system, and the resultant crackdown on the city by the Department of Homeland Security, Doctorow tries to paint a picture of what can happen when the zeal for security bests protection for civil liberties.

Unfortunately, his excellent point is drowned out by his heavy-handed sermonizing. Anyone reading this book will probably already understand the danger of protecting America by taking away civil liberties, so Doctorow is preaching to the choir to begin with. To hammer in his message so emphatically is somewhat insulting to his readers' intelligence. More subtlety would have made this both a better book as well as a more effective one.