I wasn’t expecting what I got with Web of Deceit. I actually had a very hard time with this book – not because the material being covered wasn’t interesting, but because it was presented in a way that didn’t make the material appeal to me.

The biggest thing that didn’t work for me was how American-centred this book is. It is definitely geared towards an American audience, and I hadn’t been expecting that at all, especially because it’s a topic that doesn’t just affect Americans – the social web is a global thing. It’s one thing that the majority of the examples that this book illustrates are directly impacting the American people (such as pretty much a whole essay on the current American election)… but it’s another thing when the majority of resources that are provided are specifically for Americans: federal government resources, information about American laws, places to retrieve credit reports, etc. It’s unfortunate, but this makes this particular book only good for everyone in theory and not helpful on the practical front for people who are not American.

The other thing that really didn’t work for me in regards to this book, personally, was that I found the information to be very basic. This would make the book really great for someone who is just being introduced to social media and the social web… but for someone who has an intermediate or advanced knowledge of it, then it’s information that has been rehashed again and again.

There are some things that can be taken away from this book – the appendix that goes into evaluating websites, is definitely useful. This appendix explains what sort of stuff you’re looking for to see whether a website is legit before you fully believe the information they promote, or before you submit your credit card (or any sensitive) information. This book also helps remind readers that if you click a link in an email or on a webpage that you believe is taking you to facebook (or another social networking site) but when you look up into the address bar and it’s not the address that you’re expecting, then you probably shouldn’t trust that site.

The Bottom Line: Overall… didn’t really enjoy it. Felt it didn’t really apply to me. But I can see how it could be useful to American readers who aren’t already well-versed in social media.

Review originally published: http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/2012/10/25/web-of-deceit-misinformation-and-m... ( )

This is a reasonable overview of various forms of online deception, although it concentrates primarily on the fraudulent and criminal. Given the mention of social media in the subtitle, I had expected there to be more about personal deception: false personas, cyberbullying, etc.. There is one chapter that covers that sort of material, but it's not the primary aim.

That being said, the topics that are covered are good things to know about. The problem is that some of the coverage is fairly superficial (and a bit uneven from chapter to chapter). Some contributors offer useful resources and websites that can be used to, say, evaluate a charity or combat identity theft. Others provide a little too much detail. I found the first appendix, on evaluating websites, to be a good reminder of how to assess sources critically; but the second, an annotated glossary of terms, to be a little more specific than I needed it to be. ( )

This was a great read! Although the title makes the book seem like it's written by people with tin foil hats, the actual content was very useful. It had wonderful stories about how information and misinformation can spread throughout the internet. Furthermore, there were lists of concrete things normal people can do to protect themselves. I would recommend this book to anyone that has an internet connection.

I enjoyed the book and it's a good reminder about not broadcasting your whole life on social media. Don't give out information you shouldn't the internet is full of scams, phishing, viruses and other deceptions. Oh, and if you waiting for that check from a Nigerian Prince you've been had. ( )

The Internet has been a tremendous boon to our Information Age society – it has made available a wealth of information that I never even dreamed of twenty years ago. I graduated as an undergraduate in 1994. I first went online in 1996, and let me tell you: it wasn’t all that great, but you could see the glimmerings of its potential. In college, to do research for a class paper, I had to walk to the library, use a computer terminal to search the catalogue (yes, they did still have the physical card catalogues but I preferred the computer terminals) and spend an afternoon laboriously searching for likely books. Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles were not integrated into a searchable database, and you had to visit the stacks and dig through piles of paper to see if anything looked relevant. You never knew what sources you had missed. Now, as an academic, I can search through countless databases to find virtually every article, monograph, and edited collection on a given topic, instantly and from the comfort of my home or office. I can also get copies of all these pieces as long as they’re in a database to which my academic institution has access. That’s a revolutionary transformation in information availability and retrieval. And it says nothing about the revolution in online retail and entertainment options now available. I essentially never need to visit a mall or entertainment venue again, unless I want to.

But I can also get my identity stolen online, and get my bank account cleaned out by an anonymous crook. I can be tricked into believing things that aren’t true online, and I can be subtly influenced by what I read or watch online (just as with any other information source). Personally, I find that the advantages of the Internet outweigh the disadvantages, and I’m cautious about how I use the Internet.

Not everyone is cautious with their use of the Internet, or how they perceive and treat the information we are all bombarded with on a daily basis, and that’s where WEB OF DECEIT comes in. This is a collection of relatively short essays on a host of web security, online fraud, and identity protection-related issues, along with a few pieces that begin to delve into the more subtle biases we might encounter in published statements by journalists and politicians. (On this point, I must ironically note that I found several of the websites and other sources suggested for political “fact-checking” to be extremely biased. No matter what one’s political leanings, I doubt that anyone would consider the MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow, among others, to be an objective “fact-checker” to whom one should turn for unbiased political analysis.)

Ultimately, I found WEB OF DECEIT to be a quick, fairly interesting read, but I’m not sure of its intended audience. It raises a number of issues related to Internet security, identity theft, and credibility of the information one finds online, but is any of this really new information, or for that matter, anything a thoughtful reader doesn’t already know? As a college professor, I am aware that many of my students who have come of age in a time of ubiquitous Internet access don’t treat the Internet with sufficient caution. They tend to treat all Internet sources as being equally credible, rarely interrogating their sources in a deep or meaningful way. So maybe WEB OF DECEIT could serve as an eye opener for them. It’s a quick read, and most of the essays contain at least a few interesting nuggets. I recommend it to those with a significant interest in issues of Internet privacy, but for everyone else it’s a bit ho-hum. It’s not a bad source of information – calls for heightened caution online should never fall on deaf ears – but it’s also unlikely to tell you anything you don’t already know.

Review copyright 2012 J. Andrew Byers ( )