Means of Control - by Byron Tau (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A sweeping exposâe of the U.S. government's alliance with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers, and how their efforts are reshaping surveillance and privacy as we know it. Our modern world is awash in surveillance. Most of us are dimly aware of this-ever get the sense that an ad is "following" you around the internet?-but we don't understand the extent to which the technology embedded in our phones, computers, cars, and homes is part of a vast ecosystem of data collection. Our public spaces are blanketed by cameras put up in the name of security. And pretty much everything that emits a wireless signal of any kind-routers, televisions, Bluetooth devices, chip-enabled credit cards, even the tires of every car manufactured since the mid-2000s-can be and often is covertly monitored. All of this surveillance has produced an extraordinary amount of data about every citizen-and the biggest customer is the U.S. government. Reporter Byron Tau has been digging deep inside the growing alliance between business, tech, and government for years, piecing together a secret story: how the whole of the internet and every digital device in the world have become a mechanism of intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring. Tau traces the unlikely tale of how the government came to view commercial data as a principal asset of national security in the years after 9/11, working with scores of anonymous companies, many scattered across bland Northern Virginia suburbs, to build a foreign and domestic surveillance capacity of such breathtaking scope that it could peer into the lives of nearly everyone on the planet. The result is a cottage industry of data brokers and government bureaucrats with one directive-"get everything you can"-and, as Tau observes, a darkly humorous world in which defense contractors have marketing subsidiaries, and marketing companies have defense contractor subsidiaries. Sobering and revelatory, Means of Control is our era's defining story of the dangerous grand bargain we've made: ubiquitous, often cheap technology, but at what price to our privacy?"--

Book Synopsis

You are being surveilled right now. This "startling exposé" (The Economist) reveals how the U.S. government allied with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers to monitor us through the phones we carry and the devices in our home.

"A revealing . . . startling . . . timely . . . fascinating, sometimes terrifying examination of the decline of privacy in the digital age."--Kirkus Reviews

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS AWARD

"That evening, I was given a glimpse inside a hidden world. . . . An entirely new kind of surveillance program--one designed to track everyone."

For the past five years--ever since a chance encounter at a dinner party--journalist Byron Tau has been piecing together a secret story: how the whole of the internet and every digital device in the world became a mechanism of intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring.

Of course, our modern world is awash in surveillance. Most of us are dimly aware of this: Ever get the sense that an ad is "following" you around the internet? But the true potential of our phones, computers, homes, credit cards, and even the tires underneath our cars to reveal our habits and behavior would astonish most citizens. All of this surveillance has produced an extraordinary amount of valuable data about every one of us. That data is for sale--and the biggest customer is the U.S. government.

In the years after 9/11, the U.S. government, working with scores of anonymous companies, many scattered across bland Northern Virginia suburbs, built a foreign and domestic surveillance apparatus of breathtaking scope--one that can peer into the lives of nearly everyone on the planet. This cottage industry of data brokers and government bureaucrats has one directive--"get everything you can"--and the result is a surreal world in which defense contractors have marketing subsidiaries and marketing companies have defense contractor subsidiaries. And the public knows virtually nothing about it.

Sobering and revelatory, Means of Control is the defining story of our dangerous grand bargain--ubiquitous cheap technology, but at what price?

Review Quotes

"Means of Control documents how a federal democracy formed shady alliances with private companies to collect data on its citizens. . . . [Tau] argue[s] persuasively that gee-whiz headlines about spy tech are a red herring; surveillance is a function of public-private partnerships, not specific technologies."--The New York Times Book Review

"[Byron Tau] spells out in persuasive and disturbing detail how we inescapably create a digital dossier of our every movement, social interactions, purchases, desires, and more. . . . Well-written and compelling . . . Tau knows how to tell a good story."--The Cipher Brief

"[Tau] documents how, across more than two decades, our government has turned to the private sector to keep tabs on us, all while both the authorities and the companies involved do everything they can to keep Americans in the dark. . . . An in-depth account . . . Tau's extensive research gives readers a detailed tour of the bafflingly complex ecosystem of brokers and buyers of [our] information."--Reason

"A testament to the singular and indispensable power of journalism to shine light in the dark and find answers to the hardest questions."--Shane Harris, author of The Watchers

"Byron Tau's extraordinary book recounts in engrossing detail how the U.S. government exploits massive loopholes in U.S. surveillance law to purchase in vast digital bazaars the intimate personal data that Americans unwittingly spew from their phones, cars, and computers every minute of every day. Means of Control exposes how American surveillance capitalism breeds secret government surveillance on a scale never imagined."--Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

"A chilling chronicle of how data collection efforts by corporate and government entities have created a 'digital panopticon' . . . Filled with shocking revelations and first-rate reporting, this will have readers thinking twice before they post."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Startling . . . Tau's explanations of how surveillance techniques have evolved in the twenty-first century in response to the trauma of 9/11--and how they might yet be put to use in ordinary circumstance--are exceptionally clear and unsettling. . . . This timely book carries a crucial message about the stakes involved in government-corporate partnerships. A fascinating, sometimes terrifying examination of the decline of privacy in the digital age."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Byron Tau is an investigative and enterprise journalist who specializes in law, courts, and national security. He reports for and teaches at the Allbritton Journalism Institute, a journalism nonprofit launched in 2023 that trains and mentors early-career reporters. He previously worked at The Wall Street Journal and Politico. A native of Holliston, Massachusetts, Tau has degrees from McGill University in Montreal and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.