The Privacy Fix


Book Description

Evidence-based solutions and practical steps to preserve privacy online.




Privacy in Context


Book Description

Privacy is one of the most urgent issues associated with information technology and digital media. This book claims that what people really care about when they complain and protest that privacy has been violated is not the act of sharing information itself—most people understand that this is crucial to social life —but the inappropriate, improper sharing of information. Arguing that privacy concerns should not be limited solely to concern about control over personal information, Helen Nissenbaum counters that information ought to be distributed and protected according to norms governing distinct social contexts—whether it be workplace, health care, schools, or among family and friends. She warns that basic distinctions between public and private, informing many current privacy policies, in fact obscure more than they clarify. In truth, contemporary information systems should alarm us only when they function without regard for social norms and values, and thereby weaken the fabric of social life.




How to Fix the Future


Book Description

Internet entrepreneur Andrew Keen was among the earliest to write about the dangers that the Internet poses to our culture and society. His 2007 book The Cult of the Amateur was critical in helping advance the conversation around the Internet, which has now morphed from a tool providing efficiencies and opportunities for consumers and business to a force that is profoundly reshaping our societies and our world. In his new book, How to Fix the Future, Keen focuses on what we can do about this seemingly intractable situation. Looking to the past to learn how we might change our future, he describes how societies tamed the excesses of the Industrial Revolution, which, like its digital counterpart, demolished long-standing models of living, ruined harmonious environments and altered the business world beyond recognition. Travelling across the globe, from India to Estonia, Germany to Singapore, he investigates the best (and worst) practices in five key areas - regulation, innovation, social responsibility, consumer choice and education - and concludes by examining whether we are seeing the beginning of the end of the America-centric digital world. Powerful, urgent and deeply engaging, How to Fix the Future vividly depicts what we must do if we are to try to preserve human values in an increasingly digital world and what steps we might take as societies and individuals to make the future something we can again look forward to.




The Right to Repair


Book Description

The Right to Repair reveals how companies stop us from fixing our devices and explains how we can fight back.




Technology Cannot Fix the Privacy Crisis


Book Description

Recent decades have produced a wide variety of technical tools for privacy protection. However, the hopes placed in these tools are often inflated. Overestimating the protective effect of privacy-enhancing technologies can be dangerous and may lead to a false sense of security. This chapter stresses that the following aspects need to be born in mind when assessing the real impact of technical privacy safeguards: (1) Data controllers' reluctance to apply self-limiting privacy safeguards, (2) the loophole created by the notice-and-choice approach to privacy protection, (4) technical challenges and limitations, (4) the limited scope of protection that privacy-enhancing technologies can offer. Also, many problems associated with the processing of personal data are not primarily of technical nature but involve fundamental social, ethical, and political questions. There is no doubt that technical tools play a crucial part in protecting people's privacy today. They are necessary but not sufficient. To meaningfully protect people against the dangers resulting from modern data processing, strong regulation is needed as well.




The Fix


Book Description

In the vein of #Girlboss and Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, discover how to thrive at work from the head of the Global Innovation Coalition for Change at UN Women with this “passionate, practical roadmap for addressing inequality and finally making our workplaces work for women” (Arianna Huffington). For years, we’ve been telling women that in order to succeed at work, they have to change themselves first—lean in, negotiate like a man, don’t act too nice or you’ll never get the corner office. But after sixteen years working with major Fortune 500 companies as a gender equality expert, Michelle King has realized one simple truth—the tired advice of fixing women doesn’t fix anything. The truth is that workplaces are gendered; they were designed by men for men. Because of this, most organizations unconsciously carry the idea of an “ideal worker,” typically a straight, white man who doesn’t have to juggle work and family commitments. Based on King’s research and exclusive interviews with major companies and thought leaders, The Fix reveals why denying the fact that women are held back just because they are women—what she calls gender denial—is the biggest obstacle holding women back at work and outlines the hidden sexism and invisible barriers women encounter at work every day. Women who speak up are seen as pushy. Women who ask for a raise are seen as difficult. Women who spend hours networking don’t get the same career benefits as men do. Because women don’t look like the ideal worker and can’t behave like the ideal worker, they are passed over for promotions, paid less, and pushed out of the workforce, not because they aren’t good enough, but because they aren’t men. In this fascinating and empowering book, King outlines the invisible barriers that hold women back at all stages of their careers, and provides readers with a clear set of takeaways to thrive despite the sexist workplace, as they fight for change from within. Gender equality is not about women, and it is not about men—it is about making workplaces work for everyone. Together, we can fix work, not women.




American Fix


Book Description

Nearly every American knows someone who has been affected by the opioid crisis. Addiction is a trans-partisan issue that impacts individuals from every walk of life. Millions of Americans, tired of watching their loved ones die while politicians ignore this issue. Where is the solution? Where is the hope? Where's the outrage? Ryan Hampton is a young man who has made addiction and recovery reform his life's mission. Through the wildly successful non-profit organization Facing Addiction, Hampton has been rocketed to the center of America’s rising recovery movement—quickly emerging as the de facto leader of the national conversation on addiction. He understands firsthand how easy it is to develop a dependency on opioids, and how destructive it can quickly become. Now, he is waging a permanent campaign to change our way of thinking about and addressing addiction in this country. In American Fix, Hampton describes his personal struggle with addiction, outlines the challenges that the recovery movement currently faces, and offers a concrete, comprehensive plan of action towards making America’s addiction crisis a thing of the past.




Online Social Networks Security


Book Description

In recent years, virtual meeting technology has become a part of the everyday lives of more and more people, often with the help of global online social networks (OSNs). These help users to build both social and professional links on a worldwide scale. The sharing of information and opinions are important features of OSNs. Users can describe recent activities and interests, share photos, videos, applications, and much more. The use of OSNs has increased at a rapid rate. Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo, VKontakte, and Mixi are all OSNs that have become the preferred way of communication for a vast number of daily active users. Users spend substantial amounts of time updating their information, communicating with other users, and browsing one another’s accounts. OSNs obliterate geographical distance and can breach economic barrier. This popularity has made OSNs a fascinating test bed for cyberattacks comprising Cross-Site Scripting, SQL injection, DDoS, phishing, spamming, fake profile, spammer, etc. OSNs security: Principles, Algorithm, Applications, and Perspectives describe various attacks, classifying them, explaining their consequences, and offering. It also highlights some key contributions related to the current defensive approaches. Moreover, it shows how machine-learning and deep-learning methods can mitigate attacks on OSNs. Different technological solutions that have been proposed are also discussed. The topics, methodologies, and outcomes included in this book will help readers learn the importance of incentives in any technical solution to handle attacks against OSNs. The best practices and guidelines will show how to implement various attack-mitigation methodologies.




The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative


Book Description

"Highly informative and remarkably entertaining." —Elle From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas—and the answers they yield—are more urgent than ever.




The Big Fix


Book Description

A “smart, honest, and down-to-earth” (Elizabeth Kolbert) citizen’s guide to the seven urgent changes that will really make a difference for our climate. If you think the only thing you can do to combat climate change is to install a smart thermostat or cook plant-based meat, you’re thinking too small. In The Big Fix, energy policy advisor Hal Harvey and longtime New York Times reporter Justin Gillis offer a new, hopeful way to engage with one of the greatest problems of our age. Writing in a lively, accessible style, the pair illuminate how the really big decisions that affect our climate get made—whether by the most obscure public utilities commissions or in the lofty halls of state capitols—and reveal how each of us can influence these decisions to deliver change. The pair focus on the seven areas of our political economy where ambitious but practical changes will have the greatest effect: from what kind of power plants to build to how much insulation new houses require to how efficient cars must be before they’re allowed on the road. Equal parts pragmatic and inspiring—and “full of illustrative stories and compelling evidence” (Al Gore)—The Big Fix provides an action plan for anyone serious about holding our governments accountable and saving our threatened planet.