Yasha Levine, Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet (Book Review)

By jgn on Friday, August 10, 2018 in Reading, Reviews, and Technology

This is a critically important book. The opening chapters are about the direct military involvement in the creation of the Internet: while some of the story is derived from little-known dissertations, the narrative reports a history that is not told in the mainstream works.

From there, we proceed to learn how the American government backed many of the libertarian players in the 90s ideologies of a free network.

The book concludes with a vigorous take-down of Tor and Signal. Good skepticism of Snowden as well. The conclusion notes that we cannot secure ourselves from observation but also claims that democracy needs these instruments of sunlight to reveal oppression.

If you care about privacy, security, the militarization of putatively neutral technologies, freedom, the press, etc., this book is for you.

Originally reviewed on Goodreads on 10 August 2018.