Rating: 
Summary: The "Death" of privacy? This text is no help
Review: I bought this book with the expectation that I would learn not only where "my" data are warehoused around the country, but also what to do to check it, and elect or "opt" out of various databases. Unfortunately, this book fails in that regard. There are ways to opt-out of Direct Mail, and contrary to the authors' claims, the vast majority of direct mail firms DO make use of the "DMA" list. The reason is simple ecomonics: legitimate businesses want to hold down mailing costs to their minima. Regarding medical information, the author lists 23 states the citizens of which may investigate their files. How does one initiate such an investigation? How do I check my FBI file; what about any other government files? My list goes on; it extends to every area Mr. Garfinkel covers. Not a single address or phone number for obtaining one's own data files is listed in this book. The tone appears to be doom-and-gloom rather than here's what you can do to protect yourself. For that reason I rate it 2 stars. (Name withheld to protect my privacy.)
Rating: 
Summary: very good argument for regulations NOW
Review: I'd rate this 5 stars because I couldn't put it down. Overall, I'd probably go with 4. Database Nation is a very good set of arguments for privacy laws and regulations. Most of what Mr. Garfinkle talks about is not new, although he does a great job of going into detail about why any individual type of invasion of privacy should worry you. The biggest single worry in my mind was the chapter on medical records and the things that are happening behind your back that you will never be told about with respect to insurance companies, your hospital records, and the access to them. It's not that any one thing is probably that big of an issue. It's that it's all tied together -- and your entire life is on display. It's chilling when looked at as a whole. This isn't a handbook on how to hide. But Garfinkle sets a mood and frame of mind that will certainly make you aware of how information about you gets out there, and does give some suggestions on how to limit that flow. He raises many questions about the balance of security and privacy -- concerns that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. [If you like this kind of thing, Rise of the Computer State is an excellent book, but it looks like it's out of print now (and probably dated). But it's well written.]
Rating: 
Summary: The most important book I have ever written.
Review: I've been writing about the intersection of technology and privacy ever since I graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1988. Back then I was interested in the threat of Social Security Numbers to our privacy; my professor, Steve Ross, told me to write my master's thesis on tenant screening services, a kind of computer blacklist that effectively punished renters for exercising their legal rights. I became a freelance writer after I graduated from Columbia. In the years that followed I wrote frequently about computer privacy issues for The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and Wired. My articles got a lot of people upset and opened a lot of eyes. Some of them even resulted in policy changes. This book, Database Nation, is the result of 12 year's research and reporting on the issue of privacy and technology. But rather than simply bombard the reader with story-after-story of privacy invasion, I've decided to pull-back and "go personal." The book takes a bunch of broad themes and then shows what they will mean to individuals and what they will mean in our future. Database Nation explores a lot of non-traditional ideas in the privacy space --- ideas like adoption, artificial intelligence, and something I call the democratization of technology. I also stay away from well-trod paths, like the fight over cryptography. I just don't think that another article about the FBI's fight to stymie cryptography would be useful at this point. As a result, Database Nation is a very different book than "The End of Privacy," "The Transparent Society," and other books on privacy that have been published over the past twenty years. Instead of being complete, my goal is to be visionary. I hope that Database Nation becomes the "Silent Spring" of the modern privacy movement. If this book helps you to mobilize, then it will be successful.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't know what this book is supposed to be
Review: I've enjoyed other books co-authored by Garfinkel, but I just don't know what to make of this one. The Infosec world tends to be characterized by Chicken Littles who are able to attract attention by claiming that the sky is falling down. This book is filled with sky falling down examples--some of which undoubtedly will come to pass. But I don't believe that most of them will. Just because something can go wrong, doesn't mean that it will, and this book is filled with wild speculation. This book should really appeal to the paranoid and the conspiracy theorist, but I don't believe that it really provides much guidance in what is realistically going to take place. It wasn't a bad read--the words are pleasantly arranged. But most of the scenarios in this book are just not credible to me, and the research is non-existent. Its an opinion piece, and I think most of the opinions are wrong. Does not live up to its jacket cover.
Rating:
Summary: Unrelenting Pessimism
Review: In Database Nation, Simson Garfinkel uses Orwellian prose and dark prophecies to dramatize an important but dry subject (how much the government should regulate the use of medical records and consumer purchasing records). Garfinkel portrays our world as a hopeless technical dystopia where insurance companies rip you off, telemarketers bother you at dinnertime, terrorists run free and the average person is powerless to do anything about it. The book's unrelenting pessimism makes it unbalanced and ultimately hurts the author's credibility. For example, instead of giving a nod to the progress being made by pro-privacy agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the state Consumer Protection Boards, Garfinkel dwells on abuses by the FBI and "faceless" corporations. I'd skip this one unless you need another reason to be mad at insurance companies.
Rating:
Summary: A Chilling Orwellian Nightmare of a Free Enterprise "1984"
Review: Mr. Garfinkel shares a bad dream with us of how unpleasant our lives could be made by unlimited assaults on our privacy. -- Instead of just getting telemarketing calls at dinner time, marketers send thousands of e-mails to follow up on every transaction you make (15,000 restaurants send you an e-mail coupon when they learn you are coming to New York on your honeymoon). -- Someone steals your identity by lifting a credit card application from your junk mail, spends $150,000 in your name, and ruins your credit record for 7 years so you cannot get a mortgage or another credit card (after yours are cancelled)-- because the credit bureaus cannot clean this information out of their systems. -- You get locked in a "smart" elevator that has stopped functioning because it has recognized your fellow passenger as a criminal. You suffer from a psychotic assault by the criminal, as a result, who holds you hostage in the disabled elevator. -- Telemarketers get through your caller ID screen by using software to pretend to call from your relatives' telephone numbers. -- Your computer at work monitors your output, and sends you messages about needing to do more work. George Orwell feared the government as "Big Brother" in "1984." Mr. Garfinkel says that we have Big Brother under control, but profit-making enterprises are going to get us instead. We are at risk from the universal use of the Social Security Number, "body identifying equipment" like fingerprint and voice print detectors, and massive data bases that are unwieldy. When focused on describing the parts of the threat that have not yet manifested themselves, Mr. Garfinkel is brilliant and effective. When focusing on the solutions, he is less so. Basically, he wants to create federal laws and a federal agency (albeit a small one) that will monitor technology threats and inform Congress on the choices to protect people. I think Mr. Garfinkel is pretty naive in thinking this will be enough. How much has Congress helped us stop intrusions from other forms of free enterprise? Basically, Congress listens to special interests far more than citizens. I marked the book down one star for these weak solution proposals. I do agree with Mr. Garfinkel when he says that technology is invasive. I think instead that we have to rely on our own efforts to protect our own privacy and that of people who we are responsible for. I also think we must business with companies that use our data in responsible ways, and demand full disclosure on privacy policies. For example, encryption technology can help a lot of companies allow us to work with these businesses in ways we prefer to. I can see the rise of intermediaries which provide confidentiality and data security. I certainly would like to do business with companies like that. Are there any entrepreneurs out there listening? After you have finished reading this book, think about how you can protect yourself from the worst invasions of your privacy. A good start is to get your name taken off of bulk lists. Change your address (using P.O. boxes and private services) and e-mail address often, if necessary, to help. Inquire about what other uses are made of the information you generate. Ask to see your medical records. Find out how they are being sold, and make changes to put a stop to that abuse. Armed with this book, you can make a lot of progress in protecting yourself. Mr. Garfinkel deserves our thanks and support for providing this valuable information. ...
Rating: 
Summary: lacks global perspective, highly misleading
Review: Overall, a well done expose on the troubling problem of invasive personal data collection, a problem of the infant information age. Garfinkel asserts that "technology is not privacy neutral," a true and alarming revelation in the computer age where data collection ability accelerates at a rate defined by Moore's law. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the increasingly important subject of privacy. As other reviewers have pointed out, while Garfinkel does an excellent job exposing the problem, the book comes up short in terms a practical self-defense strategy. His primary prescription for the problem is tough privacy legislation. While I certainly would not oppose this, I think this is unlikely anytime in the near future, especially in our new post 9.11 world, a subject of which he wrote in the chapter entitled "Kooks and Terrorists" prior to this event. Individuals should read this book to increase their awareness of the problem, and devise their own practical privacy self defense measures.
Rating:
Summary: An Important Expose
Review: Overall, a well done expose on the troubling problem of invasive personal data collection, a problem of the infant information age. Garfinkel asserts that "technology is not privacy neutral," a true and alarming revelation in the computer age where data collection ability accelerates at a rate defined by Moore's law. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the increasingly important subject of privacy. As other reviewers have pointed out, while Garfinkel does an excellent job exposing the problem, the book comes up short in terms a practical self-defense strategy. His primary prescription for the problem is tough privacy legislation. While I certainly would not oppose this, I think this is unlikely anytime in the near future, especially in our new post 9.11 world, a subject of which he wrote in the chapter entitled "Kooks and Terrorists" prior to this event. Individuals should read this book to increase their awareness of the problem, and devise their own practical privacy self defense measures.
Rating:
Summary: Factual errors undercut Garfinkel's arguments
Review: Privacy has become an apple pie issue. These days everyone is for it, and most people assume that there is a "right to privacy" articulated somewhere in the US Constitution, but there is actually little consensus in our society about what "privacy" really means, let alone "right to privacy." Alas, Garfinkel never quite puts forward a satisfying definition of privacy in Database Nation. He predicts (correctly) that the "right to privacy" will be one of the most important civil rights in the 21st Century, and (incorrectly) that "the federal government may be our best hope for privacy protection as we move into the new millennium." When examined more closely, most of the invasions of privacy he cites are actually violations of due process, negligence, inaccurate data, abuses of the nanny state, or outright fraud. The book suffers from so many errors that space does not allow me to identify them all. Garfinkel misstates the federal law regarding social security numbers and driver licenses. He also seems unclear on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). According to Garfinkel, the FCRA "forbids the release of the information for noncredit or insurance purposes, such as direct marketing or 'people-finding' services." The truth is more complicated, but you wont find it in Database Nation. Garfinkel's discussion of identity fraud is misinformed, and he passes along uncritically too much received wisdom about the issue. He seems to think that consumer credit reports contain the mother's maiden name of the consumer and that "lookup services make this information available, at minimal cost, over the Internet." Wrong on both counts. Forgive me, but at this point in the book I started wondering whether Garfinkel had ever even seen a credit report. As a licensed private investigator and professional debt collector, I deal with credit reports, look-up services, data protection laws and privacy issues every day, and am able to compare Garfinkel's claims with my own first-hand knowledge. Garfinkel has too much of a graduate-seminar approach to these issues. He needs to get out more. I admit I have philosophical differences with Garfinkel's framework of reference. The greatest threats to privacy come from government, not business, as government has unique powers to coerce information from its citizens which no private entity has. Garfinkel sees government regulation of the private sector as the solution to privacy concerns. I see it as the problem.
Rating:
Summary: Factual errors undercut Garfinkel's arguments
Review: Privacy has become an apple pie issue. These days everyone is for it, and most people assume that there is a "right to privacy" articulated somewhere in the US Constitution, but there is actually little consensus in our society about what "privacy" really means, let alone "right to privacy." Alas, Garfinkel never quite puts forward a satisfying definition of privacy in Database Nation. He predicts (correctly) that the "right to privacy" will be one of the most important civil rights in the 21st Century, and (incorrectly) that "the federal government may be our best hope for privacy protection as we move into the new millennium." When examined more closely, most of the invasions of privacy he cites are actually violations of due process, negligence, inaccurate data, abuses of the nanny state, or outright fraud. The book suffers from so many errors that space does not allow me to identify them all. Garfinkel misstates the federal law regarding social security numbers and driver licenses. He also seems unclear on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). According to Garfinkel, the FCRA "forbids the release of the information for noncredit or insurance purposes, such as direct marketing or 'people-finding' services." The truth is more complicated, but you wont find it in Database Nation. Garfinkel's discussion of identity fraud is misinformed, and he passes along uncritically too much received wisdom about the issue. He seems to think that consumer credit reports contain the mother's maiden name of the consumer and that "lookup services make this information available, at minimal cost, over the Internet." Wrong on both counts. Forgive me, but at this point in the book I started wondering whether Garfinkel had ever even seen a credit report. As a licensed private investigator and professional debt collector, I deal with credit reports, look-up services, data protection laws and privacy issues every day, and am able to compare Garfinkel's claims with my own first-hand knowledge. Garfinkel has too much of a graduate-seminar approach to these issues. He needs to get out more. I admit I have philosophical differences with Garfinkel's framework of reference. The greatest threats to privacy come from government, not business, as government has unique powers to coerce information from its citizens which no private entity has. Garfinkel sees government regulation of the private sector as the solution to privacy concerns. I see it as the problem.
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