Book Review

• Well written. Interesting and compelling read
• Illustrates issues with the sheer volume of personal info on Google
• Provides some tips and advice for attempting to protect privacy

• Target audience is everyone- but requires some technical knowledge

• Raises awareness about the security implications of data indexing on the Web
• The Genie is out of the bottle, but apathy is the enemy. Take steps to control the beast
• Public access to endless volumes of data makes privacy virtually unatainable
• Published October 2008 by Addison-Wesley Professional
• 360 pages

In his review of this book Ben Rothke, author of Computer Security- 20 Things Every Employee Should Know (2nd ed), stated "It has been suggested that if one was somehow able to change history so that aspirin had never been discovered until now, it would have died in the lab and stand no chance of FDA approval. In a report from the Manhattan Institute, they write that no modern drug development organization would touch it. Similarly, if we knew the power that Google would have in 2008 with its ability to aggregate and correlate personal data, it is arguable that various regulatory and privacy bodies would never allow it to exist given the extensive privacy issues."

Rothke may have been semi-prescient. Google Street Maps have been encountering increasing resistance and legal issues related to privacy concerns in countries from Japan, to Germany, to England, to Greece, and others. Granted, it is a decade or so too late to protect against most of the issues Conti analyzes in this book, but it illustrates that those concerns do exist as Google continues to expand the products and services it provides on the Web.

Johnny Long has evangelized on the topic of data security on Google for years. His book, Google Hacking, is more about targeted techniques for extracting sensitive information that users should have protected better rather than an indictment of Google or its methods. But, it illustrates essentially the same point- there is a virtually endless amount of data catalogued and indexed on Google's servers and, either intentionally or unintentionally, it can have significant privacy and security ramifications.

Greg Conti's take on the subject makes for an interesting and compelling read. It has tips, but is short on actual solutions. It is good to be aware of the security implications of resources such as Google though. Give it a read.