Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance

by Heidi Boghosian

"With ex-CIA staffer Edward Snowden's leaks about National Security Agency surveillance in the headlines, Heidi Boghosian’s Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance feels especially timely. Boghosian reveals how the government acquires information from telecommunications companies and other organizations to create databases about 'persons of interest.'"--Publishers Weekly

The government is spying on you, collecting phone records, and accessing your online activity. This is not only unacceptable, it's unconstitutional. National Lawyers Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian provides the back story.

Until the watershed leak of top-secret documents by Edward Snowden to the Guardian UK and the Washington Post, most Americans did not realize the extent to which our government is actively acquiring personal information from telecommunications companies and other corporations. We now know that the National Security Agency (NSA) has collected information on every phone call Americans have made over the past seven years. And, in that same time, the NSA and the FBI have gained the ability to access emails, photos, audio and video chats, and additional content from Google, Facebook, and others, allegedly in order to track foreign targets.

In Spying on Democracy, Heidi Boghosian documents the profoundly disturbing increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy, our civil liberties, and to the future of democracy itself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Technology, Business, History

350 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2013

About the author

NYC attorney and radio host interested in government accountability, mass surveillance, and cybersecurity.

Reviews

[City Lights Booksellers & Publishers]

"In a typical day 'your image is caught on surveillance cameras at least 200 times,' warns Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, in this well-researched dossier on the pervasive lengths the U.S. government and corporations will go to track citizens' personal habits. Rejecting the notion that the domestic 'surveillance net' of technologies such as biometric scanning, drones, and RFID chips keep Americans safer from terrorism, the author argues that such relentless scrutiny makes Americans less free by silencing critics and encouraging complacency with waning expectations of privacy. Timely examples are provided, including one from a Pennsylvania school district which remotely monitored students via cameras on school laptops, as well as a breakdown of the police tactics used during the Occupy movement. These examples are carefully connected to their societal consequences: among the areas directly affected, claims the author, are free speech, attorney-client privileges, investigative journalism, and the ability to protest injustice. Boghosian concludes with a survey of organizations devoted to protecting civil liberties. But real freedom, she stresses, must be defended on the personal level through committed encouragement of dissent. An informative read for parents, students, and activists, especially those interested in the implications of technology in today's society."--Publishers Weekly

"If the Edward Snowden and NSA spying incidents peaked your interest in surveillance, Spying on Democracy by Heidi Boghosian is sure to quench your thirst. Within these pages, you'll discover a whole new world of surveillance you never even knew existed."--Jennifer Melville, San Francisco Book Review

"Heidi Boghosian's Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance is a timely, controversial, and engaging account of government and corporate surveillance of daily life. . . . Ms. Boghosian is a gifted writer." --Jeffrey D. Simon, The New York Journal of Books

[Danae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gringocéntrico

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Anne Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slightly-outdated but well-written and organized accounting of how domestic spying (spying by the government and corporations on citizens) impacts Americans' freedoms and security. Arranged to discuss point-by-point different aspects of spying on citizens, it starts each chapter with a history of each form of spy craft and brings the reader up-to-date by showing how it evolved to its present form, and finally ends with recommendations on how to avoid the pitfalls created by the application of modern spy techniques by government and corporations alike.

What I would love to see is a Second Edition that updates what the book discusses. How about it, Heidi?

[Pam Freeland · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book has some pro certain agendas without the balance that some in those groups have indeed done things that are indeed violent and abuse of social improvements....overall this is an excellent book to inform you of how intrusive the government and corporations have been and are in our everyday lives. With the Apple controversy in the news as I write this....it is timely as well. I recommend this book.

While the book has some pro certain agendas without the balance that some in those groups have indeed done things that are indeed violent and abuse of social improvements....overall this is an excellent book to inform you of how intrusive the government and corporations have been and are in our everyday lives. With the Apple controversy in the news as I write this....it is timely as well. I recommend this book.

[Taresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free through the first reads giveaway contest. So far, the book seems very interesting, and has a rather timely premise. I will update my review once I finish reading.

* Updated review*
Boghosian has done an excellent job researching this topic, and brings up some very interesting points. At what point is a public willing to give up freedom in order to gain a semblance of safety? This book is so well timed that it is worth reading even if a reader does not wholeheartedly accept Boghosian's ideas.

[Mashi D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I changed my rating since I read this book in April, 2020 at the start of the pandemic. I originally rated it a 3 because it is a bit dry at times but as we went through a year of political uprising in America, I found myself thinking back to this book and questioning everything that was happening. Thank you for this book, definitely a must read.

[Jonathan Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heidi gives a thorough tour of the collusion of law enforcement and corporate interests to erode privacy. If you are interested in privacy issues, this book will give you a lot of objective material to consider (with a huge section of sources to back it up).

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw a TV interview with author, wanted to read book. Left me a little flat. It seemed like just when she was about to make an important point, she tiptoed away by not giving the details.

[Molly]

Definitely some new ideas and articles to bring to class! (See notes for last chapter especially)