American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It

by Jennifer Stisa Granick

US intelligence agencies - the eponymous American spies - are exceedingly aggressive, pushing and sometimes bursting through the technological, legal and political boundaries of lawful surveillance. Written for a general audience by a surveillance law expert, this book educates readers about how the reality of modern surveillance differs from popular understanding. Weaving the history of American surveillance - from J. Edgar Hoover through the tragedy of September 11th to the fusion centers and mosque infiltrators of today - the book shows that mass surveillance and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. Granick shows how surveillance law has fallen behind while surveillance technology has given American spies vast new powers. She skillfully guides the reader through proposals for reining in massive surveillance with the ultimate goal of surveillance reform.

Genres: Nonfiction, Law, Leadership, History, Politics

354 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2017

About the author

Jennifer Stisa Granick joined Stanford Law School in January 2001, as Lecturer in Law and Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society (CIS). She teaches, speaks and writes on the full spectrum of Internet law issues including computer crime and security, national security, constitutional rights, and electronic surveillance, areas in which her expertise is recognized nationally.

Granick came to Stanford after almost a decade practicing criminal defense law in California. Her experience includes stints at the Office of the State Public Defender and at a number of criminal defense boutiques, before founding the Law Offices of Jennifer S. Granick, where she focused on hacker defense and other computer law representations at the trial and appellate level in state and federal court. At Stanford, she currently teaches the Cyberlaw Clinic, one of the nation's few law and technology litigation clinics.

Granick continues to consult on computer crime cases and serves on the Board of Directors of the Honeynet Project, which collects data on computer intrusions for the purposes of developing defensive tools and practices and the Hacker Foundation, a a research and service organization promoting the creative use of technological resources. She was selected by Information Security magazine in 2003 as one of 20 "Women of Vision" in the computer security field. She earned her law degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from the New College of the University of South Florida.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Depressingly comprehensive overview of government surveillance in the US

This is a great (well researched, thoroughly cited, clearly presented, sober and rational) book about the past, present, and future of government surveillance by the US Government, both domestic and foreign. Unfortunately, that also makes it quite depressing to read. While the author lays out a reasonable path to reign in the surveillance state, I think we are too far gone and technology will be left to fight a rear-guard action until much broader political change happens.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply thorough, deeply depressing

[Greg Mitseas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chilling look at the legal framework behind intelligence surveillance. The NSA, CIA, and FBI collect signals intelligence based on a variety of legal authorities: FISA, EO 12333, The USA Patriot Act, etc. Though these authorities have various limitations (only applicable to foreign intelligence overseas, or foreign agents), intelligence agencies have conducted bulk surveillance (incidentally sweeping up Americans' data) that oversteps these bounds. Sometimes, illegal bulk collection programs are implemented, and only legally justified after the fact (through secret FISA court reinterpretations of case law and existing statues).

We arrive at a scenario where, even though collecting domestic, American data is usually illegal (without a warrant) this data is collected in the course of foreign intelligence surveillance, shared with the FBI and other agencies in various databases, and then subject to use in criminal investigations. Though the 4th amendment has been interpreted to mean that individuals have a reasonable expectation to privacy, this may not be respected by federal prosecutors. They may not disclose to the courts that evidence was collected via foreign surveillance programs, or they may use parallel construction to arrive at the evidence ex post facto.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can I give such a high rating to a book that angered me in every chapter? This book should be recommended reading for all of the American Congress. It tells many details of how Americans have lost their privacy and the dystopian consequences that should inspire all of us to reconsider the direction things are going. In my opinion, the book failed to deliver on telling citizens "what to do about it". Peons like me don't have many options to effect change - except perhaps recommending that everyone read this book to learn what has been publicly divulged about how our government is spying on us - and what it is costing us in taxes and lost foreign trade.

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful review of a complex subject, "American Spies" ambitiously tries to cover the history of the law pertaining to surveillance technology in America. From the Fourth Amendment to FISA courts, Granick knowledgeably guides the lay reader through the development of our current state of affairs. Civil libertarians will be interested in the discussions of laws and court proceedings that are themselves secret, policy and history nerds will be interested in how historical events influenced the changing face of the law over time, and everyone will be interested to know the extent of the current online data gathering permitted to American spies and, increasingly, law enforcement.