Book Review/Heather Seggel

Keep It Under Wraps

I’m currently writing on a Chromebook. Even foregoing Google searches, it’s surprising to see ads related to my search habits turn up in my other online haunts. Sometimes I peer into the little camera eye on this laptop and wonder what it’s doing. “‘I Have Nothing to Hide’: And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy” (Beacon Press) offers a sometimes scary debunking of our common understanding of how thoroughly we are being scanned at all times, and digs deep into what it means. And what it often means is money. Author Heidi Boghosian, an attorney and data privacy expert, likens data to oil. Thick swaths of crude can be collected and refined into targeted advertising, addictive engagement with apps, or predictive analytics, which are sketchy at best, ominous at worst.

The book breaks its 21 myths into three broad categories: Personal and national security, protections and immunities, and the impact of surveillance on autonomy, community, and society. Some of them seem obvious, and can offer the reader a sense of being ahead of the curve. The myth, “Teenagers don’t care about privacy,” feels like a relative softball, because of course they do! A tendency to broadcast their lives online falls into the same category of reckless behavior as drunk driving. The consequences of that exposure can be dangerous, humiliating, and in the extreme, even fatal. So teaching good internet habits and applying guardrails for young people to constrain those impulses is important.

Things take a more disturbing turn when we consider the notion that “surveillance doesn’t influence how I act.” In fact, even a photo of human eyes in a retail space can deter theft and encourage people at an “honor system” coffee kiosk to pay in full for services. Knowing you’re on camera is a form of behavioral control. (Now might be a good time to put a sticky note over that laptop camera.)

Predictive analytics is the science behind most artificial intelligence. Feed a system enough data and it will take a stab at doing what it thinks you want. It doesn’t always go well; I reviewed Janelle Shane’s “You Look Like A Thing and I Love You” here, and that title was an AI’s attempt at a sexy pick-up line. Their recipes are also surreal and hilarious. But the use of predictive analytics in law enforcement is a recipe for disaster. Who gets disproportionately arrested whether or not there’s a legitimate charge? Black and brown people. The supposed “neutrality” of an algorithm means it misses the nuance of a bogus arrest and will still profile someone as a likely offender, or continue to target the same neighborhoods repeatedly, based on false data.

I used to think this book’s titular myth made sense; after all, if I am not doing crimes, there’s nothing for anyone to find, right? Think again about “predictive” policing, and the nature of profiling. The police who smashed in Breonna Taylor’s door and murdered her in her bed were looking for a man who was already in police custody. Taylor had nothing to hide, either, but that fact did not save her life.

Boghosian takes her subject seriously and makes her arguments using well-chosen examples. The final debunking comes for the myth that there’s nothing we can do to stop surveillance, and it’s easy to feel this sort of futility while reading. I walked into a chain drug store I visit regularly and was suddenly aware of more mirrors, flat-panel displays showing me walking around, and shiny black spherical ceiling-mounted cameras than I’d previously noticed. Bought two packs of gum and scanned a store card that logged my purchase while paying with a card that did the same. That’s a lot of data for an innocuous transaction! But there are things we can do to fight back, starting with gently disconnecting from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other data gobblers. When we can safely meet in person, she suggests engaging a tech-savvy friend or two and hosting a party where you update electronic devices to make them as private as possible.

One thing that is never specifically mentioned here, but which many sections hint at, is the connection between data aggregation and conspiracy theories, misinformation, and disinformation. The degree to which we have been profiled and steered to provocative online content, and encouraged to fight each other and discredit reality, was all made possible by this loss of privacy. If you’re not a fan of QAnon, you have a dog in this fight — their message would not have spread without these algorithms.

Just after finishing “I Have Nothing to Hide,” I started reading a thriller where many of the plot twists turned on cell phone data, access to PINs, and innocuous-looking apps that concealed folders under their blank surfaces. It’s great material for thrillers, because the reality is truly chilling. This is a good place to learn why, and begin defending your data.

Heather Seggel is a writer living in Northern California. Email heatherlseggel@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2021

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