Technology can be luminous—but, like the sun, too much exposure to it without thoughtful precautions can singe in the short term and be lethal in the long term. (Location 157)
The laws generally have a common set of problems. They place too much of the onus for managing privacy on individuals who lack the time and expertise to do so. (Location 206)
Are we doomed to watch helplessly as technology turns our world into a terrible blend of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale? Can anything be done to save us from a dystopian world without privacy? (Location 217)
some concepts do not have “one thing in common” but “are related to one another in many different ways.” (Location 231)
Privacy is the protection against certain forms of societal impingement on individuals that affect their personal life. The best way to understand privacy is to focus on the activities that can cause disruptions to personal life that might require interventions. (Location 237)
a taxonomy of privacy that includes four general categories and sixteen subcategories of activities that can lead to disruptions of private life. The general categories are (1) information collection, the methods by which data about people is collected; (2) information processing, the storage, use, and analysis of personal data; (3) information dissemination, the means by which personal data is transferred or disclosed; and (4) invasions, direct interferences with an individual’s life. Protecting privacy involves addressing all these issues. (Location 240)
With technology, we have tamed the natural world, lengthened human life, combated disease, and freed ourselves significantly from countless perils and discomforts that nature has thrown in our path. (Location 273)
Technology beguiles and dazzles us, offering convenience, speed, power, and even beauty. The internet shimmers with delights, a garden of endless possibilities. But the garden turns out to be filled with vipers. Like Odysseus’s crew, we eagerly devour Circe’s food and drink her wine; we know the fate that awaits us but we can’t stop—the food is simply too delicious, the wine too intoxicating. The technologies that allow us to communicate around the world, to carry a computer in our pockets, and to analyze massive quantities of data in a nanosecond seem to be leading simultaneously to a utopia and a dystopia. (Location 278)
Nature isn’t designed for our comfort or flourishing; it is something to be survived. And through technology, humans have not only survived but thrived. Art, culture, and philosophy are all possible because technology has freed us from the constant burden of battling with nature. (Location 285)