Many people ask why I chose to write about privacy and mass surveillance. Even my editor, Alan Rinzler, wanted to know why I'd taken on such an ambitious endeavor during our first meeting.

The truth is, I didn't choose to write such a book at all.In Absence of Fearbegan simply with Marus Winde's character, The Hat, and the café. I had no idea that Marus would work for the government or with algorithms. I had no clue that the book would involve predictive policing.These themes and details, grew...