Little Brother

4/5: Good intro to mass surveilance for a young audience

Young adult novel following a teenager in San Francisco after a terror attack. The government introduced mass surveilance policies and the book explores the effects on the people and a group of young hacker rebels that refuse to accept it.

• Good introduction to the themes of mass surveilance for a young audience.
• Including common arguments for (« I have nothing to hide » and « it’s to make us safe »).
• Demonstrates how easy it is to abuse. Both by authorities overstepping their power and by people knowing how to abuse the system.
• All tech concepts introduced (crypto, keyloggers, VPN…) are real.
• « Rebellious teenager vs the adult world » makes it captivating to read.
• Afterwords by security researchers inviting the readers to get a carreer in tech.

• It was fun reading something set in SF after having been there.

• Very American centered (mentions the constitution, patriot act)
• Didn’t like the relationship/sex parts. I guess it is more compelling to the young audience.