By the time this review is published, I predict that Schneier's book will have been reviewed in multiple places and will have spent time on the NYT bestsellers list so I'm not going to write yet another summary of the book. What I am going to do is summarize what I liked about the book and why you should read it, share it with your friends and even send copies to your elected representatives.

We live in a world of data - it's harvested, stored, analyzed, reported and used to make important decisions ranging from what ads your search engine highlights to the security screening you face at the airport. And, as the Snowden revelations have shown, there's an extensive private/public infrastructure dedicated to harvesting, storing and acting on data.

There's been a growing susurrus of concern about all this data gathering and decision making but the details have always seemed too technical and remote for a large majority of the people whose data is involved. Schnieer tackles the issues in a clear, readable presentation that is accessible to the general reader.

He organizes the book into three parts: the first ("The World We're Creating") is a masterful summary of how intensive the harvesting of data actually is and the economic incentives that drive it; the second ("What's at Stake") delves into the societal implications of this surveillance-driven world; and the third (What to Do About it) proposes ways this data-addiction can be brought under control.

The first two parts of the book explain our surveillance culture in detail and analyze the many false trade-offs (e.g., security vs. privacy) and collateral impacts (such as the post-Snowden reduced competitiveness of US products and services). As in any such presentation, the author will have to face the disbelief that such things are actually happening and Schneier meticulously documents the sources behind his writing in a notes section that occupies about a third of the book.

What really sets this book apart is not its detailed examination of how bad things are but rather the proscriptive actions for improving the situation. Chapter 12 ("Principles") states the basic principles ("Security and Privacy", "Transparency", "Oversight and Accountability", "Resilient Design", "One World, One Network, One Answer") guiding the way forward in dealing with our surveillance problem. The angels are in the details, of course, and Schneier spends the following three chapters spelling out how governments, corporations and people can apply them.