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Jeanne Theoharis speaks with Lerone A. Martin on the white Christian legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.
Yawning gaps in the law empower police to collect and store massive amounts of data, all on the grounds that it might one day turn out useful.
Both regulators and employers have embraced new technologies for on-the-job monitoring, turning a blind eye to unjust working conditions.
László Krasznahorkai’s latest novel reflects on the power of the surveillance state through the perspective of a librarian who wishes to lock up all books.
As Big Tech's data and profit extraction extends the world over, activists in the Global South are pointing the way to a more just digital future.
Two new books examine the ordinary roots of our extraordinary regime of high-tech monitoring.
Twenty-five years of neoliberal political economy are to blame for today's regime of surveillance advertising, and only public policy can undo it.
Boston Review speaks with Rachel Rebouché on the post-Dobbs legal landscape.
Younger voices are using technology to respond to the needs of marginalized communities and nurture Black healing and liberation.
We need a model of ownership that recognizes our collective interests.
In the high-tech culture of Tel Aviv, military-grade spying on civilians has become just another office job.
Drone attacks were sold to the American people as a way to limit U.S. involvement in Pakistan. In reality, U.S. empire has only continued to exert influence.
Far from a relic of the past, September 11 continues to normalize state-sanctioned barbarity.
Justice demands that we think not just about profit or performance, but above all about purpose.
The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.
Proptech is leading to new forms of housing injustice in ways that increase the power of landlords and further disempower tenants and those seeking shelter.
A leaked Department of Homeland Security database confirms what many suspected: the U.S. government is trying to punish and intimidate people advocating for immigrant rights.
We have surrendered the cherished value of “innocent until proven guilty” for the security logic that we are all “risky until proven safe.”
In the era of digital neighborhoods, social networks embolden a new kind of racial surveillance.
‘Happy End’ is the culmination of Haneke’s obsession with how technology mediates our desires.
It is an ever-widening surveillance zone that turns borderland citizens into guardians of the state.
On the legal and ethical scope of surveillance.
Throughout the twentieth century, bipartisan consensus was that black youth were latent criminals in need of abundant policing.
Edward Snowden’s actions can be justified, but not as civil disobedience.
East German writer Wolfgang Hilbig on the surveillance state.
We need new privacy law for the digital age.
The massacre led immediately to national security fantasies.
The “nothing to see here” tone of a recent intelligence report shows Obama is not concerned about our civil liberties. That is why we should be.
The newest report sees nothing illegal about warrantless collection of Americans’ international calls and e-mails.
The newest report sees nothing illegal about warrantless collection of Americans’ international calls and e-mails.
Is it naïve to see whistleblowing as a form of civil disobedience?
The internet has become an environment of total tracking and total control.
Framing surveillance as a tradeoff between privacy and security is a dead end for democracy.
We invited poets to contribute new works, entering into a larger dialogue on what it means to have open eyes and ears in the twenty-first century. Poems by Armantrout, Ashbery, Bernstein, Pinsky, and others.
We are at a critical point in the history of our civil liberties.
In the post-Snowden world, it is hard to imagine a more consequential fork in the road.
“The drones were terrifying. The buzz of a distant propeller is a constant reminder of imminent death."
Any literate person could recognize that the essay was a work of art. But Google’s family-friendly algorithm decided it was porn.
Did you know that when you buy a mobile phone, you waive any right to privacy in your movements?
If we already know the government violated the law, the fact that its actions were subject to oversight does not excuse the violation.
On the limitations of secret judicial review.
By routinely giving away a huge amount of personal data, everyday Internet users might already have become law enforcement’s greatest ally.
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Just in time for the holidays, get any three print issues of Boston Review for just $35 – that’s 40% off the cover price!
Before December 9, mix and match any three issues for one low price using code 3FOR35.
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