Data and Goliath: Reviews and Excerpts

On the net right now, there are excerpts from the Introduction on Scientific American, Chapter 5 on the Atlantic, Chapter 6 on the Blaze, Chapter 8 on Ars Technica, Chapter 15 on Slate, and Chapter 16 on Motherboard. That might seem like a lot, but it’s only 9,000 of the book’s 80,000 words: barely 10%.

There are also a few reviews: from Boing Boing, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Nature. More reviews coming.

Amazon claims to be temporarily out of stock, but that’ll only be for a day or so. There are many other places to buy the book, including Indie Bound, which serves independent booksellers.

Book website is here.

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Posted on March 3, 2015 at 1:03 PM • 17 Comments

Comments

re: interested • March 3, 2015 2:10 PM

Hey, Interested – you can get it on Kindle in pretty much any country.

Cos • March 3, 2015 8:24 PM

Is this book going to eventually come out in paperback?
For that matter, will Liars and Outliers?
I strongly prefer paperbacks but I realize that I’ve been waiting for Liars and Outliers for longer than I’d have expected and it’s still only in hardcover.

Bruce Schneier • March 3, 2015 8:42 PM

“Is this book going to eventually come out in paperback? For that matter, will Liars and Outliers?”

Data and Goliath will probably come out in paperback in a year or so — nothing definite yet. Liars and Outliers will probably never come out in paperback.

It’s 100% the publisher’s decision.

Buck • March 3, 2015 9:24 PM

@Bruce

Bummer!

No wonder nobody wants to deal with intelligence on its own level… This information is all tightly tied to preexisting presumptions of privilege and the ‘fact’ that the less fortunate ‘should’ be denied the opportunity to take equal part in this whole spectacle.

DMCA? Yeah, we’ve thought well, hard, and long about that… We’ll just TURMOIL a bunch of ‘automatic’ & ‘random’ QUANTUM FOXACID requests for some potentially copyrighted content! Bingo – instant warrant to seize any and all equipment as we wish! 😛

CallMeLateForSupper • March 4, 2015 8:00 AM

I think Chapter 15 alone is potentially worth the entire price, judging by the preview. I mean, “How to Mess With Surveillance”… that’s a hoot.

Those insideous customer perk cards are one of the many “opportunities” I always “just say no” to, but now I almost would like to have a bunch, to trade with friends and thereby mess with the data aggregators. Maybe maximize the effect by initiating group-trades as part of existing weekly or monthly meetings.

I already send personal snail mail sans return address.

Tom • March 4, 2015 11:45 AM

Interest in privacy has dropped by 50% over the past decade—at least according to Google Trends.

Irony intended?

Mike • March 5, 2015 6:07 AM

Reading it on Kindle right now, fantastic book, very well researched and written. I’m glad I’m snowed in today, I can knock out several more chapters.

Moo • March 5, 2015 6:12 AM

Magically arrived on my Kindle on 2nd March. Then I remembered I had pre-ordered! 🙂 Just dipped into the book and so far it’s an excellent read …. a nice change from all the all the other tech heavy books I’ve been reading of late!

Brett • March 5, 2015 7:59 AM

Mine has been shipped and is on the way. Can not wait to read it. Going to make my 14 year old son read it also.

aaa • March 6, 2015 8:17 AM

Considering the contents of Chapter 15, maybe we should buy the book with cash at a magazine stand, while wearing a hat!

(Seriously though, do you really want google and amazon to know exactly when and how long you read each page?)

Mrs. Snowed-in • March 6, 2015 9:45 AM

Do you have any near-future plans to visit Northern Virginia again, for those of us who could not travel due to the weather?

species5618 • April 3, 2015 1:17 PM

Just finished reading data and Goliath. Great read overall.

Oddly only a few individual items on surveillance I did not know or suspect was going on.

The big opener for me was how some of the techniques used together produces shocking results in overall capability.

I particular liked the differentiation of espionage and surveillance.
A line which can be difficult to draw for combating terrorism. And often over stepped in the UK with ripa being used to track dog poo issues and school placement issues..

I will say it did leave me wanting more. But I don’t know what! !

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