So, it has been almost two years since Ed Snowden leaked, and long ago you became numb to the weekly announcements of government and corporate wrong-doing. Besides, did you hear about that massive credit card theft? It reminds me of the other one just a few months back. Anyways, maybe it is time you get up to speed? Luckily your good old Uncle Bruce is some sort of fellow at the Harvard Berkman center of internet something-or-other. He will probably know the deal, so you ask him. He says, "Hey, there is a 3 day weekend coming up. Why not head out to the cabin, and I can fill you in?" You are like, cool! They have the best homemade raft out there. As requested, you leave your cellphone at home, and once you get up to the cabin, Uncle Bruce has some smores all laid out, the fireplace is nice and warm, and there are STACKS AND STACKS OF PAPERS. Uncle Bruce then takes the next three days patiently walking you through every issue and related incident, pointing to the relevant stack of references. He has a simple way of talking, uses real life examples, and has a great beard. You leave the cabin feeling refreshed and informed... vitalized even, to act for once. "Holy crap," you realize. "This IS big. It DOES affect me, even if I only post gifs of cats." Like Uncle Bruce says, "Data is the pollution problem of the information age, and protecting privacy is the environmental challenge." This is a unique time, and we can do something about it!


Okay, so more seriously:

This is an excellent primer on the issues. Schneier lays out the issues surrounding mass-surveillance meticulously and accessibly (and with a mountain of references… more than half the book!). If you have only been slightly following the post-Snowden changes taking place in our society, and want to get up to speed quickly, this is the book for you. Schneier is not all doom and gloom, and separates out the good from the bad. He offers an effectively nuanced argument. Not only that, he goes one better than "merely" cataloging the issues and why they are important, and spends the last third of the book on recommendations for what governments, corporations and individuals can do. This book is an excellent roundup of the first year of Snowden's impact. I expect there will be follow ons.

I recommend this to all the friends, parents and relatives of every tech geek out there. This will give them the basic background so that you can have a discussion with them, and they can have a similar discussion with THEIR friends and neighbours.