Book Review Future Crimes: Inside the Digital Underground and the Battle for Our Connected World by Marc Goodman

It took me awhile to finish this book - but it was well worth it! Future Crimes: Inside the Digital Underground and the Battle for Our Connected World by Marc Goodman.

All about the adverse effects of technology, on us and the world around us. Motto: when everything is connected, those who do not understand the technologies are more than vulnerable. We might use the Internet or social media in good faith, but the data and digital traces we leave can be used by others for many ulterior motives.

Here’s some quotes:

The more we plug our devices and our lives into the global information grid - whether via mobile phones, social networks, elevators, or self-driving cars - the more vulnerable we become to those who know how the underlying technologies work and how to exploit them to their advantage and to the detriment of the common man. Simply stated, when everything is connected, everyone is vulnerable. The technology we routinely accept into our lives with little or no self-reflection or examination may very well come back to bite us.

In this brave new world, we’ve taken the human being out of the loop and have entrusted the backbone of civilisation to machines (including: electricity grid, gas pipelines, 911 dispatch systems, air traffic control, the stock market, our drinking water, streetlights, hospitals, sanitation systems etc)

It’s a false dichotomy of choice: either we accept total surveillance, or we are criminals worthy of suspicion… The fact is that each of us has private special moments in our lives, made exceptional by limiting with whom we share such intimacies.

The combination of our social data commingled with public databases, cookies, beacons, and locations can lead to a series of unintended and even harmful consequences… When you are a product of the Internet and social media companies, the challenges you face is that data you provide in one context can be used in unexpected way in another, with notable consequences.

The tools to change the world are in everybody’s hands, How we use them is not just up to me - it’s up to all of us. That better version of our future - the one we all want - will not magically appear on its own. It will take tremendous intention, effort, and struggle. But with this hard work, not only will it be possible to survive progress, but to thrive to an extent never previously imagined.

Read an excerpt.