Recipients of these mailings: Charles Duhigg (19 Feb 2012), “How companies learn your secrets,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html.
50 million people have installed AdBlock Plus: Kashmir Hill (21 Aug 2013), “Use of ad blocking is on the rise,” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/21/use-of-ad-blocking-is-on-the-rise.
the value of a single: Victor Luckerson (7 Mar 2014), “Twitter’s ad prices are in free fall,” Time, http://time.com/16032/twitter-ad-prices-decline. Brian Womack (16 Apr 2014), “Google revenue falls short of estimates, ad prices drop,” Bloomberg Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-16/google-revenue-falls-short-of-estimates-as-ad-prices-decline-1.
a common commodity: Emily Steel (12 Jun 2013), “Companies scramble for consumer data,” Financial Times, http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/Z8K8I2/9ZND5E/972MV7/VTD3N8/SN/h. Ken Figueredo (19 Jun 2013), “Prices and value of consumer data,” More with Mobile, http://www.more-with-mobile.com/2013/06/prices-and-value-of-consumer-data.html.
the value of each user: Tristan Louis (31 Aug 2013), “How much is a user worth?” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/tristanlouis/2013/08/31/how-much-is-a-user-worth.
already reached the peak: Tim Hwang and Adi Kamdar (9 Oct 2013), “The theory of peak advertising and the future of the web,” Peakads.org, http://peakads.org/images/Peak_Ads.pdf. Tim Hwang (19 Mar 2014), “The Peak Advertising Institute,” Knight News Challenge, https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/2014/feedback-review/the-peak-advertising-institute.
I don’t think anyone knows: Doc Searls (23 Mar 2009), “After the advertising bubble bursts,” Doc Searls Weblog, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2009/03/23/after-the-advertising-bubble-bursts.
early tropes of the Internet: Moshe Yudkowsky (2005), The Pebble and the Avalanche: How Taking Things Apart Creates Revolutions, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, http://www.pebbleandavalanche.com.
eBay connected buyers and sellers: Mark Graham (2008), “Warped geographies of development: The Internet and theories of economic development,” Geography Compass 2/3, http://www.geospace.co.uk/files/compass.pdf.
music promotion and distribution: Mike Masnick (19 Jun 2013), “Hollywood’s new talking point: Gatekeepers are awesome,” Tech Dirt, https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/18243923466/hollywoods-new-talking-point-gatekeepers-are-awesome.shtml.
airline tickets: Alina M. Chircu and Robert J. Kauffman (1998), “Analyzing market transformation in the presence of Internet-driven disintermediation: The case of online travel reservation providers,” Management Information Systems Research Center, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.196.4820&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
in some cases—advertising: Tim Williams (3 Jun 2013), “The disintermediation of the advertising agency business,” LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130603205503-2042198-the-disintermediation-of-the-agency-business.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said: Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen (2013), The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, Knopf, http://www.newdigitalage.com.
A variety of economic effects: Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian (1998), Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Harvard Business Review Press, http://www.inforules.com.
Google controls two-thirds: comScore (21 Jun 2014), “comScore releases June 2014 U.S. search engine rankings,” https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Releases-June-2014-US-Search-Engine-Rankings.
have Facebook accounts: Maeve Duggan and Aaron Smith (30 Dec 2013), “Social media update 2013,” Pew Research Internet Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013.
Amazon controls about: Troy (12 May 2013), “Highlights from the U.S. Book Consumer Annual Review,” AALB.com’s Discussion Forum, http://aalbc.com/tc/index.php/topic/2051-highlights-from-the-us-book-consumer-annual-review.
Comcast owns about: Trefis Team (24 Jul 2014), “Comcast earnings grow 15% on good broadband growth,” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/07/24/comcast-earnings-grow-15-on-good-broadband-growth.
In 2001, eBay started hiding: Matthew Fordahl (2 Feb 2001), “eBay to hide members’ e-mail addresses,” ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98958.
in 2011, it banned e-mail addresses: eBay (1 Oct 2011), “E-mail addresses and some links no longer permitted in listings,” http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/links2011.html.
in 2012, it banned them from user-to-user: eBay (2 Oct 2012), “Sellers: E-mail addresses and some URLs no longer allowed in member-to-member messages,” http://announcements.ebay.com/2012/10/sellers-e-mail-addresses-and-some-urls-no-longer-allowed-in-member-to-member-messages.
Websites that profit from advertising: Steven Levy (22 Apr 2014), “Inside the science that delivers your scary-smart Facebook and Twitter feeds,” Wired, http://www.wired.com/2014/04/perfect-facebook-feed.
sites that allow you to opt out: Nate Anderson (24 Jul 2008), “.06% opt out: NebuAd hides link in 5,000-word privacy policy,” Ars Technica, http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/07/06-opt-out-nebuad-hides-link-in-5000-word-privacy-policy.
The relationship is more feudal: Bruce Schneier (26 Nov 2012), “When it comes to security, we’re back to feudalism,” Wired, http://www.wired.com/2012/11/feudal-security.
We like having someone else: Rachel King (15 Oct 2012), “Consumers actually really like cloud storage, report says,” ZDNet, http://www.zdnet.com/consumers-actually-really-like-cloud-storage-report-says-7000005784.
the rise of cloud computing: This is a good introduction to cloud computing. Michael Armbrust et al. (10 Feb 2009), “Above the clouds: A Berkeley view of cloud computing,” Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2009-28, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-28.pdf.
they turn our data over: Both Google and Microsoft have turned child porn suspects over to the FBI on their own initiative. Robert Macpherson (4 Aug 2014), “Google defends child porn tip-offs to police,” Yahoo! News, http://news.yahoo.com/google-defends-child-porn-tip-offs-police-025343404.html. Leo Kelion (6 Aug 2014), “Microsoft tip leads to child porn arrest in Pennsylvania,” BBC News, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28682686.
the rise of user devices: Jonathan Zittrain (2009), “Tethered appliances, software as service, and perfect enforcement,” in The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, Yale University Press, http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4455262/Zittrain_Future%20of%20the%20Internet.pdf.
Apple has rules about what software: Meg Albus (5 Sep 2013), “Don’t get rejected by Apple!” PBS Producer Exchange, https://projects.pbs.org/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=34046325.
In 2009, Amazon automatically deleted: Brad Stone (18 Jul 2009), “Amazon erases Orwell books from Kindle,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html.
vendors are moving to a subscription model: Sam Grobart (14 Nov 2013), “Software makers’ subscription drive,” Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-software-makers-subscription-drive.
Adobe did that with Creative Cloud: David Pogue (17 Sep 2013), “Adobe’s software subscription model means you can’t own your software,” Scientific American, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/adobe-software-subscription-model-means-you-cant-own-your-software.
if I decide to abandon those services: Google is much better at letting users leave with their data than many other companies are.
Political scientist Henry Farrell: Henry Farrell (Fall 2013), “The tech intellectuals,” Democracy 30, http://www.democracyjournal.org/30/the-tech-intellectuals.php.
It’s not reasonable to tell people: This isn’t to say that these things are essential and that it’s impossible to get along without them. I don’t have a Facebook account. I know people who don’t have cell phones, and one person who doe
sn’t shop online at all. We do have a choice, but living without any of these things can be very difficult, both personally and professionally.
Opting out just isn’t a viable choice: Jessica Goldstein (29 Apr 2014), “Meet the woman who did everything in her power to hide her pregnancy from Big Data,” Think Progress, http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/04/29/3432050/can-you-hide-from-big-data.
5: GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL
The documents from Snowden: Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani (14 Oct 2013), “NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-collects-millions-of-e-mail-address-books-globally/2013/10/14/8e58b5be-34f9-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html. Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani (30 Oct 2013), “NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html. Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras (7 Jun 2013), “U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html.
The NSA was formed in 1952: US Executive Office of the President (24 Oct 1952), Memorandum to Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense re: Communications Intelligence Agency, US National Security Agency, http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/truman/truman_memo.pdf.
US signals intelligence and codebreaking: Thomas L. Burns (1990), “The origins of the National Security Agency 1940–1952 (U),” Center for Cryptologic History, US National Security Agency, http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_histories/origins_of_nsa.pdf.
Secrets of fact: Several political scientists have written about the difference between secrets and mysteries, or puzzles and mysteries. Joseph S. Nye Jr. (Jul/Aug 1994), “Peering into the future,” Foreign Affairs, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/50102/joseph-s-nye-jr/peering-into-the-future. Gregory F. Treverton (Sep 2001), “Reshaping national intelligence for an age of information,” Research Brief 5, European Union Center for California, http://eucenter.scrippscollege.edu/files/2011/06/Treverton-05.pdf.
“Never again” was an impossible mandate: Dan Geer (9 Oct 2013), “Tradeoffs in cyber security,” http://geer.tinho.net/geer.uncc.9x13.txt.
Modern government surveillance monitors: Under the 1978 FISA law that regulated NSA surveillance, targets inside the US had to be “agents of a foreign power.” When the law was amended in 2008 under the FAA—FISA Amendments Act—a target could be any foreigner.
This latest mission rose in importance: Dana Priest (21 Jul 2013), “NSA growth fueled by need to target terrorists,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html.
If the NSA tapped: The NSA did that in 1984. William J. Broad (8 Nov 1998), “A tale of daring American submarine espionage,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/us/a-tale-of-daring-american-submarine-espionage.html.
Google doesn’t store: Google (2014), “Data center locations,” https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/index.html.
It has a larger intelligence budget: Barton Gellman and Greg Miller (29 Aug 2013), “U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-details-us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and-objectives/2013/08/29/7e57bb78-10ab-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html. Ewan MacAskill and Jonathan Watts (29 Aug 2013), “US intelligence spending has doubled since 9/11, top secret budget reveals,” Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/29/us-intelligence-spending-double-9-11-secret-budget.
The Internet’s physical wiring: Ryan Singel (10 Oct 2007), “NSA’s lucky break: How the U.S. became switchboard to the world,” Wired, https://web.archive.org/web/20071019223411/http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/domestic_taps. Christopher Mims (8 Jun 2013), “Why the NSA has access to 80% of online communication even if Google doesn’t have a ‘backdoor,’” Quartz, http://qz.com/92369/why-nsa-has-access-to-80-of-online-communication-even-if-google-doesnt-have-a-back-door.
The goal of the NSA’s surveillance: Ewen MacAskill and James Ball (2 Nov 2013), “Portrait of the NSA: no detail too small in quest for total surveillance,” Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/02/nsa-portrait-total-surveillance. Glenn Greenwald (2014), No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State, Macmillan, chap. 3, http://leaksource.info/2014/07/31/glenn-greenwalds-no-place-to-hide-nsa-documents-excerpts.
no evidence to suggest: Of course, I don’t know for sure. Bill Binney, another NSA whistleblower, has said otherwise, but he has provided no evidence. Antony Loewenstein (10 Jul 2014), “The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control,” Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/the-ultimate-goal-of-the-nsa-is-total-population-control.
we know it is doing so: Ryan Devereaux, Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras (19 May 2014), “Data pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA is recording every cell phone call in the Bahamas,” Intercept, https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/05/19/data-pirates-caribbean-nsa-recording-every-cell-phone-call-bahamas. Julian Assange (23 May 2014), “WikiLeaks statement on the mass recording of Afghan telephone calls by the NSA,” WikiLeaks, https://wikileaks.org/WikiLeaks-statement-on-the-mass.html.
The agency’s 2013 budget: Barton Gellman and Greg Miller (29 Aug 2013), “‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-details-us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and-objectives/2013/08/29/7e57bb78-10ab-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html.
it directly employs: Dana Priest (21 Jul 2013), “NSA growth fueled by need to target terrorists,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html.
many more as contractors: 70% of the intelligence budget goes to private firms; 483,000 contractors have top-secret clearance, representing 34% of the 1.4 million people cleared at that level. Robert O’Harrow Jr., Dana Priest, and Marjorie Censer (10 Jun 2013), “NSA leaks put focus on intelligence apparatus’s reliance on outside contractors,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/nsa-leaks-put-focus-on-intelligence-apparatuss-reliance-on-outside-contractors/2013/06/10/e940c4ba-d20e-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html. Jonathan Fahey and Adam Goldman (10 Jun 2013), “Leak highlights key role of private contractors,” Associated Press, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/leak-highlights-key-role-private-contractors.
the total for 2013 was $53 billion: Barton Gellman and Greg Miller (29 Aug 2013), “‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black-budget-summary-details-us-spy-networks-successes-failures-and-objectives/2013/08/29/7e57bb78-10ab-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html.
the US spends $72 billion annually: Steven Aftergood (Mar 2014), “Intelligence budget data,” Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program, http://fas.org/irp/budget/index.html.
the capabilities were developed: “We believe that the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have also had a large but difficult-to-measure impact on decisions about technical collection and communications technologies.” Richard A. Clarke et al. (12 Dec 2013), “Liberty and security in a changing world: Report and recommendations of The President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies,” US Executive Office of the President, p. 187, ht
tp://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2013-12-12_rg_final_report.pdf.
Executive Order 12333: The feds call it “twelve triple-three.” US Executive Office of the President (4 Dec 1981), “Executive Order 12333—United States intelligence activities,” Federal Register, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html. Alex Abdo (29 Sep 2014), “New documents shed light on one of the NSA’s most powerful tools,” Free Future, https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/new-documents-shed-light-one-nsas-most-powerful-tools.
some protection for US citizens: Mark Jaycox (5 Nov 2013), “Three leaks, three weeks, and what we’ve learned about the US government’s other spying authority: Executive Order 12333,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/three-leaks-three-weeks-and-what-weve-learned-about-governments-other-spying.
Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act: US Congress (2001), “USA Patriot Act Section 215,” http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-107hr3162enr/pdf/BILLS-107hr3162enr.pdf.
a secret court interpreted this: Marcy Wheeler (14 Aug 2014), “George W. Bush’s false heroes: The real story of a secret Washington sham,” Salon, http://www.salon.com/2014/08/14/george_w_bushs_false_heroes_the_real_story_of_a_secret_washington_sham.
Section 702 of the FISA: There’s also the Protect America Act (PAA) of 2007. It was overturned and replaced by the FAA, but any existing authorizations under PAA were grandfathered. We don’t know how many there are, so we don’t know how important this is. James Risen (6 Aug 2007), “Bush signs law to widen reach for wiretapping,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/washington/06nsa.html. Ryan Singel (6 Aug 2007), “Analysis: New law gives government six months to turn Internet and phone systems into permanent spying architecture,” Wired, http://www.wired.com/2007/08/analysis-new-la.
Data and Goliath Page 32