Yasha Levine's "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" (2018). I ended up reading it side-by-side with Ed Snowden's "Permanent Recor

Yasha Levine's "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" (2018). I ended up reading it side-by-side with Ed Snowden's "Permanent Record" (2019) which was useful as they have somewhat different takes on domestic and global mass surveillance. The one take-away I'm still thinking about is how the Tor Onion Router system works, and if the primary purpose behind Tor was to allow spies in various locations around the planet to communicate with known headquarter locations without leaving any traces. That's what Levine implies, anyway, and Snowden sort of confirms that, as I read things. Overall, some people believe putting advanced technology in the hands of individuals is a solution to authoritarian control, some people believe political reforms are the solution to authoritarian control. Interesting debate certainly.