The Privacy Mission: Achieving Ethical Data for Our Lives Online - Hardcover

by Annie Machon (Author)

Future-proof yourself and your organization against known threats to privacy and online safety

The subject of data ethics has never been more urgent. This is no longer an academic or niche geek issue as it has been since the inception of the internet and the world wide web. Data ethics is an issue that affects all of us now as our personal and professional lives increasingly take place online.

• Who controls access to the hardware, who runs the software, who can spy on us, hack us, data farm us?
• What are the threats that we need to mitigate against democratically, societally, and personally?
• How can corporations protect us and how can that help their bottom line?

The Privacy Mission aims to answer these questions and summarise both the overarching concepts and principles about why data ethics is important. It offers practical solutions for companies, policy makers and individuals to push back against known threats and future proof themselves going forward.

Front Jacket

In The Privacy Mission decorated activist, speaker, and campaigner Annie Machon delivers an essential and practical treatment of contemporary data ethics. No longer an academic or niche concern for regulators and privacy enthusiasts, data ethics now has a direct and outsized impact on all our personal and professional lives.

In the book, you'll explore crucial topics in the area of data ethics, including discussions of who controls access to the hardware and software that is increasingly used to spy on us, hack us, and farm our data. You'll learn the answer to the question of which democratic, social, and personal threats we need to meet, mitigate, and respond to, and whether corporations can help protect us in a way that also advances their bottom line.

The Privacy Mission summarises the overarching concepts and principles of this nuanced and complex area, offering practical solutions for companies, policy-makers, and individuals trying to push back against known and unknown threats and attempting to future proof themselves against the more sinister aspects of the digital revolution.

The author presents fascinating and important perspectives on how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the meaning of the word "privacy," the existence of both fascism and communism, the value of a free press, and other relevant historical and recent developments shape and change how we think about data ethics.

A can't-miss exploration of a critically relevant and impactful subject, The Privacy Mission will earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, and business leaders at companies of all types and sizes, regulators, lawmakers, academics, researchers, and laypersons interested in the increasingly fraught world of online and digital privacy.

Back Jacket

Dive deep into the light and dark sides of digital transformation and data ethics

The Privacy Mission is an insightful and practical discussion of the multi-layered, exciting, and sometimes chilling subject of contemporary data ethics. The author, renowned speaker, former MI5 agent and political campaigner Annie Machon, shares her experienced and carefully researched perspective on the major historical developments that have shaped modern data ethics, the modern trends that continue to change it, and the developments lying in wait for us in the future.

You'll explore the universal principles and concepts of the subject while examining practical solutions for leaders at modern companies, governments, and security agencies who wish to minimize the harmful impact of technological revolution. From copyright law to the increasing inseparability of corporate and state power, criminal hacking enterprises, and media censorship, the author dives deep into every important facet of an issue that has a noticeable and direct impact on all of us.

An indispensable treatment of a critical topic of interest to managers, executives, and other business leaders at companies around the world, The Privacy Mission will also be of immense interest to policymakers, regulators, and academics who seek to influence the conversation around privacy, digital transformation, technology, and data.

"Everything we do today involves the internet; everything we do tomorrow will require it. And yet, our virtual world is a lawless one, where governments and corporations trample human rights and insist it doesn t matter because it's the internet. This is a book that shows you how far our human rights have slipped, and how we can take them back."

-Cory Doctorow - Award-winning novelist; special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and member of the Advisory Board, World Ethical Data Foundation

Author Biography

ANNIE MACHON is an international public speaker, writer, media commentator, and political campaigner. She is a Director of the World Ethical Data Foundation. Machon is a former MI5 agent and the European Director of the drug reform organisation, Law Enforcement Action Partnership.