Surveillance Valley: The Book That Exposes the Internet's Hidden Military Agenda
Download PDF Surveillance Valley: The Secret
If you think that the internet is a free and open space where you can communicate, learn, and have fun without being watched or manipulated by anyone, you might want to think again. In this eye-opening book, Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet, investigative journalist Yasha Levine reveals the dark and disturbing truth behind the origins and evolution of the internet, and how it has become a global system of surveillance and control. You will learn how the internet was born as a Pentagon project to spy on enemies and dissenters, how Silicon Valley giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon have turned it into a profitable business of data collection and manipulation, and how the privacy movement has been co-opted by the same forces that it claims to oppose. This book will change the way you think about the internet, and what you can do to protect yourself from its dangers.
Download PDF Surveillance Valley: The Secret
What is Surveillance Valley?
Surveillance Valley is the name that Levine gives to the complex network of connections and collaborations between the military, the intelligence agencies, and the tech industry that shape and operate the internet. The book argues that the internet is not a neutral or democratic technology, but a weapon of war that was designed and developed for the purpose of spying on people and groups perceived as a threat, both at home and abroad. The book also shows how the same military objectives that drove the creation of the internet are still at the heart of Silicon Valley today, and how these companies spy on their users for profit, while also doing double duty as military and intelligence contractors. The book exposes how the surveillance industry has infiltrated and influenced every aspect of our online lives, from search engines to social networks, from e-commerce to email, from maps to messaging, and more.
How did the internet start as a military project?
The book traces the history of the internet back to its origins in the 1960s, when the US was engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and a hot war in Vietnam. The book tells the story of how a visionary intelligence officer named William Godel realized that the key to winning these wars was not outgunning the enemy, but using new information technology to understand their motives and anticipate their movements. Godel proposed a radical idea: to use computers to spy on people and groups around the world, and to analyze their data to predict their behavior and influence their actions. This idea was embraced by the Pentagon, which funded and supported Godel's research through a secretive branch of the Department of Defense called ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency). ARPA was responsible for most of the early internet research, and for creating the first computer networks that would later evolve into the global internet we know today.
Who was William Godel and what did he do?
William Godel was an intelligence officer who worked for various agencies within the US government, such as the CIA, the NSA, and ARPA. He was one of the pioneers of computer science and artificial intelligence, and he had a vision of using these fields to create a new kind of warfare: information warfare. Godel believed that by collecting and analyzing massive amounts of data from various sources, such as phone calls, letters, newspapers, radio broadcasts, etc., he could create a comprehensive picture of any person or group in the world, and use this information to manipulate them or neutralize them. He called this project "Project Camelot", and he envisioned it as a global system of surveillance and prediction that would give the US an edge over its enemies. Godel was also involved in developing some of the first computer networks that connected different computers across different locations, such as ARPANET (the precursor of the internet) and SAGE (a network of radar stations that monitored Soviet air activity).
What was ARPA and how did it shape the internet?
ARPA was a branch of the Department of Defense that was created in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. ARPA's mission was to fund and oversee cutting-edge research in science and technology that could have military applications or strategic advantages. ARPA had a lot of freedom and flexibility in choosing its projects and researchers, and it operated with minimal oversight or bureaucracy. ARPA was interested in Godel's ideas of using computers for surveillance and prediction, and it gave him generous funding and support for his research. ARPA also funded other researchers who were working on similar or related topics, such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, computer graphics, etc. ARPA's most influential project was ARPANET, which was launched in 1969 as a network that connected four computers at different universities. ARPANET was intended as a way to share resources and information among researchers working on ARPA-funded projects, but it also served as a testbed for experimenting with new technologies and protocols that would later form the basis of the internet.
How did Silicon Valley become a surveillance business?
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