Book details of 'Protect Your Digital Privacy! Survival Skills for the Information Age'

Title	Protect Your Digital Privacy! Survival Skills for the Information Age
Author(s)	Glee Harrah Cady, Pat McGregor
ISBN	0789726041
Language	English
Published	December 2001
Publisher	Que

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Protect Your Digital Privacy! Survival Skills for the Information Age':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Part one sets the stage. Chapter one gives vague ideas about protecting your privacy in the twenty first century, mostly about e-commerce. A variety of definitions of privacy, from differing perspectives, are listed in chapter two. Part two discusses privacy and the individual. From celebrity magazines to publicly available government databases to e-commerce loyalty programs, chapter three discusses who might want to know different types of information about people. Chapter four presents the usual information about kids and the net: the net is potentially dangerous for kids, talk to your kids about their net use, and safe sites. Although there is nothing new here, the material is reasonable and well presented. Email address harvesting and cookies are reviewed in chapter five. Chapter six talks about high speed Internet access, including little content on security or privacy, but an odd bit on malware. There is a similar discussion of cellular phones and technology in chapter seven. Chapter eight examines cell phone location systems, "pay-fobs," face recognition and other miscellaneous technologies. Part three talks about taking control of your privacy and information. Chapter nine suggests taking an inventory of your personal information (available online) and looks at Web search engines and the inaccuracy of commercial search services. Chapter ten is a mixed bag of security topics, including a little cryptography, something on passwords, and cookies again. Although there are some good tips on protecting online transactions, chapter eleven suffers from a lack of structure. The advice to know where you are and who you are dealing with, for example, is on page 308, but the material on server authentication is on page 294. Neither location actually demonstrates the ability to verify the certificate, or the "Paypal/Paypa1" fraud. Chapter twelve deals with what to do if your information is compromised, but doesn't cover the topic particularly well. There is mention of spam filters, but not the dangers of losing email; there are directions for reporting frauds, but few details on the levels below which the agencies aren't interested; addresses of credit agencies, but little useful information on identity theft. Part four looks at legal protection. Chapter thirteen is an excellent overview of laws regarding privacy, covering both the United States and a number of other countries. (While the rest of the book is primarily directed at home users, this chapter alone may be worth the price of the volume for security practitioners. I am not aware of any other text that deals with current laws as well.) Advocacy groups are listed in chapter fourteen, with self-regulation programs in fifteen. Electronic voting is examined in chapter sixteen, concentrating on Internet or online voting, although most of the studies cited dealt with other forms of voting technology. Chapter seventeen asks where we are going, and meanders around so much that it is hard to say. There is a vague wrapup in chapter eighteen. A number of other authors have attempted to provide a book about privacy for the masses. Chris Peterson's attempt (see reviews) was about privacy, but not really about the net. David Brin's "The Transparent Society" (see reviews), which gets a mention in the current work, is fascinating, but doesn't really cover the present situation. "Privacy Defended" (see reviews) is only nominally about privacy. Cady and McGregor have managed to stick pretty close to the topic. They present a good deal of useful information, although the book would definitely benefit from an improved framework and a general tightening up of the writing: with a trimming of verbiage and a more focussed thread to the ideas the volume could be lightened by a third or more. However, for those who want some guidance on the topic and don't want the academic classics like "Privacy on the Line" (see reviews) or "Technology and Privacy" (see reviews), this would be a good choice. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2002
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Book description:

Protect Your Digital Privacy! Survival Skills for the Information Age offers clear discussion of privacy issues as they affect everyday users of digital devices. This book covers both current and near-future technologies, and the privacy risks that users face. Also included are practical recommendations-including third party hardware and software solutions-for implementing privacy safeguards when using different digital devices.