Laura K. Donohue

The Future of Foreign Intelligence by Laura K. Donohue is a fascinating and alarming work that looks at the difficult task of balancing intelligence gathering with privacy issues, primarily through the lens of national security law.

Donohue presents the historical background of foreign intelligence gathering dating to the beginning of the country then looks closely at what has changed to bring us to this point in time. The advent of the internet and the ease of electronic communication have become embedded in citizen's everyday lives often without the realization of how easily every word or image they send can be tracked.

This is a fair and balanced look at how we might be able to find that point where security interests are maintained without the collection of so much mass data. The old "if you aren't doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" argument to being surveilled misses the point entirely. If our communications are being saved and for some reason a person becomes a "person of interest" for political rather than legal or security reasons, that data can be used to intimidate or, if manipulated and spun, used to discredit. All without that person having done anything wrong.

This book is a wonderful read for anyone interested in the area of security and privacy law as well as anyone interested more generally in surveillance issues as they apply domestically as well as internationally. Donohue has given us the background we need to read today's news stories and understand significantly better the issues at stake for both privacy and national security.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)