My Privacy Library
by Bill Rounds
How to Vanish
Recently
by Bill Rounds: Remove
Personal Information From the Internet
People always
ask about the privacy books I read and recommend. I have several
books and many are very good. They can be very helpful companions
to How
To Vanish the book, so I thought I would share my library
with you.
I have already
written about The
Sovereign Individual which gives a good big-picture view
of the future of large organizations and individuals regarding privacy.
The other books that I recommend are The
Lifeboat Strategy by Mark Nestmann, How
To Be Invisible by J.J. Luna, and How
To Disappear by Frank Ahearn.
The Lifeboat
Strategy
The
Lifeboat Strategy is a great source for reference material
on the statutes, historical developments, background information
and many other things relating to privacy. It also has several
actionable tips and suggestions to better protect your information
and avoid violating the law. This book is impeccably researched,
with hundreds and hundreds of citations to original sources.
The author,
Mark Nestmann, is a trusted expert on privacy. His privacy recommendations
and observations are very trustworthy.
Criticism
This book has
a lot of detailed information that is interesting but not necessary
for someone who wants to protect as much privacy as possible with
the least amount of effort.
Even so, as
reference material and as interesting background with some applicable
law, this book is a great one to have in any privacy library.
How To Be
Invisible
If you want
to hear how to protect privacy from someone who had to do it for
many years while living in a dictatorship, How
To Be Invisible is a great book. J.J. Luna offers a lot
of practical and useful tips on how to protect your privacy in many
areas of your life. The book is full of actual stories and situations
where the privacy tips were either needed or helpful from a wide
range of people. At just over 200 pages, this book will not be
beyond the time constraints of most people to read and digest.
J.J. Luna is
another well-respected expert on privacy and really knows what he
is talking about.
Criticism
How
To Be Invisible is shorter and easier to read than The
Lifeboat Strategy, but the actionable tips are still somewhat
buried among information that is not as actionable. Having to separate
the actionable information from the rest can still take more time
and effort than some readers might want to give.
How To Be
Invisible is another great book to have for anyone who wants
to protect their personal information.
How To Disappear
How
To Disappear has very explicit steps and easy to follow,
actionable items to protect privacy. This book shows readers how
to completely drop off the map so that they are almost impossible
to find. How To Disappear shows readers the most advanced
and most robust ways to protect their privacy.
This book is
also very exciting. There are plenty of compelling anecdotes about
people who either needed help or who had successfully eliminated
the threats to their privacy.
Frank Ahearn
is a former skip tracer. His job was to track down people that
have tried very hard to protect their privacy. He shares, not only
the skills needed to beat a skip tracer, but he does a great job
at conveying the frame of mind a person might have if they are trying
to hunt you down. He also helps readers establish the right frame
of mind needed to evade prying eyes of the best skip tracers in
the world.
Criticism
How
To Disappear is mainly targeted at people who really want
to completely be erased from the map. Following through means a
complete change in lifestyle that is very expensive, requires extreme
planning, will cut you off from friends and family except for very
limited contact, and will probably mean starting a new life in another
country.
There are still
a lot of useful tips and techniques for the average person who just
wants to keep some of their information from being public. It will
take more time and effort to read through and separate the things
that the average person will find useful from the extreme cases.
Someone who wants to completely disappear probably won't be
able to do it right without consulting an expert to help them.
Even though
it demonstrates some very extreme measures, most people who are
interested in privacy would find this book useful and entertaining.
Conclusion
I have all
of these books. I like them all. All of the authors are experts.
There are plenty of other books that are good too. I haven't had
a chance to read them all. If you are interested in privacy you
will probably find The
Sovereign Individual, The
Lifeboat Strategy, How
To Be Invisible, and How
To Disappear to be worth buying.
Reprinted
with permission from How to
Vanish.
March
2, 2011
Bill
Rounds, J.D. is a California attorney. He holds a degree in Accounting
from the University of Utah and a law degree from California
Western School of Law. He practices civil litigation, domestic
and foreign business entity formation and transactions, criminal
defense and privacy law. He is a strong advocate of personal and
financial freedom and civil liberties.
Copyright
© 2011 How
to Vanish
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