Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power

by Ari Ezra Waldman

In Industry Unbound, Ari Ezra Waldman exposes precisely how the tech industry conducts its ongoing crusade to undermine our privacy. With research based on interviews with scores of tech employees and internal documents outlining corporate strategies, Waldman reveals that companies don't just lobby against privacy law; they also manipulate how we think about privacy, how their employees approach their work, and how they weaken the law to make data-extractive products the norm. In contrast to those who claim that privacy law is getting stronger, Waldman shows why recent shifts in privacy law are precisely the kinds of changes that corporations want and how even those who think of themselves as privacy advocates often unwittingly facilitate corporate malfeasance. This powerful account should be read by anyone who wants to understand why privacy laws are not working and how corporations trap us into giving up our personal information.

Genres: Technology

378 pages, Hardcover

Published September 28, 2021

Reviews

[Randy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is focused on why data privacy laws and compliance is so ineffective and enabled in this effort by technology companies and the privacy folks charged with protecting people's personal data. As someone who works in the trenches of data protection, I mostly agree with Mr. Waldman's assessment but he provides weak solutions because he doesn't understand the source of the problem.

He identifies the problem as how privacy law is designed as a system of notice and control. The notice aspect is burdening the individual with reading and comprehending long legalese-ridden privacy policies. This indecipherable language is what the individual is suppose to use to exercise (when they are even available) their rights to suppress, delete, correct or receive their own personal information held by thousands of companies.

Mr. Waldman does a great job interviewing lots of privacy lawyers, technology managers and software engineers to get at how cosmetic most privacy efforts are. But he doesn't have any operational privacy knowledge or experience himself. He has a strong academic background in privacy and corporate governance but I think he missed the key issue which isn't surprising because this issue is rarely address head-on the corporate world.

Some personal data matters far more than other data. That a tech company stores my personal email address and perhaps my phone number is not a surprise. While I might not be happy that they also have my date of birth and social security number, their ubiquity in the digital world makes it hard to protect what is already lost. However, my medical conditions, my salary, my assets, my credit card information, my control of facial recognition, fingerprints and my personal proclivities etc. is a more reasonable place to assert control. Waldman never addresses this fact. It is the specific sensitive personal data that we want protected and which we can still fight to get protected. His dismissal of the GDPR suggests a lack of understanding of just how radical that law is. Basically it says that the individuals' personal information isn't anyone else's except if certain conditions apply. There is nothing in U.S. law that comes close to that kind of protection. Our personal information is completely up for grabs. The only thing companies have to do is provide some notice about what they are collecting and what they are doing with it.

California's new law requires stricter rules for companies handling our sensitive personal data. In addition, California will have the most significant enforcement mechanism in the U.S. to hold companies accountable for their practices and actions. While much about the California law is weaker than the European model, when if comes to sensitive data, the medical, sexual, financial types of data we don't want shared, there will be more rights for the individual. Waldman's book definitely demonstrates how toothless the current privacy environment is in the U.S. but he failed to understand that what types of data gets protected and how it gets protected should be our privacy focus going forward.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 10/3, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet and Stevo's Novel Ideas. Waldman exposes how the tech industry conducts a crusade to undermine our #privacy. Unsaid in the mission statement of every successful business is the need to know as much as possible about its customers, which is in direct competition with the customers' desire for the data about their shopping habits (and other personal information) to be kept private.

Most eye-opening is Waldman's description of how privacy protection is marginalized throughout the industry and how corporations leverage privacy laws to keep gathering data. In his conclusion, using the FTC's reliance on industries to self-regulate themselves as an example, Waldman advocates for the creation of independent legal, professional, and educational institutions to act as counterweights to corporate power.

Find more Business Books of the Week on my Goodreads Listopia page at https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9..., and find many more recommended books on my Amazon Influencer page at https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747 or by searching for me on Google.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book too late, wish I read it in 2019/2020 to get a value from it. Having said that I really enjoyed reading this book. This thought-provoking book sheds light on how the tech industry utilizes its power to undermine privacy through intensive research and dialogues involving various stakeholders, including researchers, engineers, and product managers. The book explores the tactics employed by tech companies to prioritize data extraction over user privacy, utilizing the collective expertise of these professionals. By examining the intricate dynamics of these interactions, the book highlights the urgent need for a more inclusive and privacy-centered approach within the industry.

[Yi Ye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Passionate but repetitive

The author presented a thorough investigation & indictment of current privacy landscape. However, the entire book feels repetitive and condescending. It also doesn’t do a good job of explaining concepts and nuance of the privacy space. I found “Privacy is Hard” by Jaap-Henk Hoopman a much better read.

[Daniel Medwed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book from a great scholar

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to both #NetGalley and Cambridge University Press for providing me an advance copy of Ari Ezra Waldman’s scholarly work, Industry Unbound, in exchange for an honest review.

#IndustryUnbound is supposedly a take on how companies in the tech industry implement pro-privacy corporate strategies and use them as a shield to exploit consumer data and undermine consumer privacy. Though the text is billed as a nonfiction novel, it reads more like an article from an academic journal; with a premise that is loosely supported by unformatted interviews between the author and tech industry employees.

Based solely on the introduction, I would not be surprised to learn that the book started as one of the author’s previously published law journal notes. While this structure works well in both academia and legal texts, I strongly recommend avoiding its use in nonfiction novels. It comes across as dull and repetitive. Fortunately, readers who work in the privacy sector or who have extensive knowledge of privacy laws can skip this section. It likely does not offer any new information.

Again, for those who are relatively familiar with the privacy realm, chapter one may be disregarded as well. Ignore it unless you enjoy reading poorly formatted conversations interviews between the author and random employees from unnamed tech companies. I realize the author was attempting to support his argument by emphasizing the indifference and/or lack of training some employees have despite their titles, but this could have been done in a more tactful manner. Instead, the interview subjects come across as ignorant and careless individuals, and the author himself as antagonistic. To reiterate, I learned nothing.

Moving swiftly on to Chapter 2, which unfortunately is not much better for one underlying reason: the author proffers sweeping generalizations that one could easily discover by reading any privacy blog (not article) on the internet. Although the author uses footnotes, I would recommend he insert them after every opinion sentence. Ivy league degrees are not the equivalent of a reliable source. Neither is highlighting the obvious using an arrogant tone. Indeed, I cannot decide which offense is worse: the bluster or the lack of support.

Additionally, I’d be curious to know with whom the author is having these discussions. According to the subtext, virtually no one save for the author himself knows anything about privacy law. I beg to differ. There is certainly a way to implement tools and utilize regulations as protective measures. Sir, if you are reading this and doubt me, please feel free to reach out. I will gladly share my approach.

For the now third and final time, if you have an interest in this field, then reading this novel will not offer any new insight. I would summarize the book in one sentence for prospective readers, but unlike the author, I have no desire to antagonize anyone. While I do agree with many of the points that the author makes, it could have been executed without the redundancy and condescension. (Oh, the irony! I know). I also would have loved to hear some of the author’s proposals on how the industry should proceed to resolve these issues. At the very least, some original thoughts on the subject would have been lovely. Editors, if you are reading this drivel, please take note!