Means of Control

How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State

By: Byron Tau

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

You are being surveilled right now. This sweeping exposé reveals how the U.S. government allied with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers to monitor us through the phones we carry and the devices in our home.

“A revealing . . . startling . . . timely . . . fascinating, sometimes terrifying examination of the decline of privacy in the digital age.”—Kirkus Reviews

“That evening, I was given a glimpse inside a hidden world. . . . An entirely new kind of surveillance program—one designed to track everyone.”

For the past five years—ever since a chance encounter at a dinner party—journalist Byron Tau has been piecing together a secret story: how the whole of the internet and every digital device in the world became a mechanism of intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring.

Of course, our modern world is awash in surveillance. Most of us are dimly aware of this: Ever get the sense that an ad is “following” you around the internet? But the true potential of our phones, computers, homes, credit cards, and even the tires underneath our cars to reveal our habits and behavior would astonish most citizens. All of this surveillance has produced an extraordinary amount of valuable data about every one of us. That data is for sale—and the biggest customer is the U.S. government.

In the years after 9/11, the U.S. government, working with scores of anonymous companies, many scattered across bland Northern Virginia suburbs, built a foreign and domestic surveillance apparatus of breathtaking scope—one that can peer into the lives of nearly everyone on the planet. This cottage industry of data brokers and government bureaucrats has one directive—“get everything you can”—and the result is a surreal world in which defense contractors have marketing subsidiaries and marketing companies have defense contractor subsidiaries. And the public knows virtually nothing about it.

Sobering and revelatory, Means of Control is the defining story of our dangerous grand bargain—ubiquitous cheap technology, but at what price?

*Includes a downloadable PDF of resources and key concepts & definitions from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Byron Tau (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[Tau] documents how, across more than two decades, our government has turned to the private sector to keep tabs on us, all while both the authorities and the companies involved do everything they can to keep Americans in the dark. . . . An in-depth account . . . Tau’s extensive research gives readers a detailed tour of the bafflingly complex ecosystem of brokers and buyers of [our] information.”—Reason

“Byron Tau has revealed the secret history of a new American surveillance state. We are all its unwitting builders, providing the raw materials from the phones we carry in our pockets and the devices we place in our homes. As Tau shows in vivid, often frightening detail, none of us consented to this arrangement. But we can hardly be surprised that corporations and governments have scooped up unfathomable amounts of information about us, since it was practically free for the taking. Means of Control is an urgent story, meticulously reported and compellingly told. . . . A testament to the singular and indispensable power of journalism to shine light in the dark and find answers to the hardest questions.”—Shane Harris, author of The Watchers

“Byron Tau’s extraordinary book recounts in engrossing detail how the U.S. government exploits massive loopholes in U.S. surveillance law to purchase in vast digital bazaars the intimate personal data that Americans unwittingly spew from their phones, cars, and computers every minute of every day. Means of Control exposes how American surveillance capitalism breeds secret government surveillance on a scale never imagined.”—Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

You sort of knew it already…

But this well-reported, well-told story of the data collection capacity of the seemingly innocuous devices all around us, combined with just how easily it can be used for surveillance by governments, bad actors or just the highest bidder is chilling.

A riveting narrative with several sections that had me on the edge of my seat or gritting my teeth in frustration. Good audiobook narration, too, a really engaging voice and presentation.

I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

A must read for all Americans

Wake up America! Before it is too late to wake up. This books barely touches what is in reality happening behind the scenes, it just recounts what we were allowed to know.

Wow. This book opened my eyes

I couldn’t be more thankful to have been recommended this book. I had no idea about anything of this nature and so glad my eyes are now open. Please, keep up what you’re doing and write more!

Knowledge is the anti-conspiracy weapon

Byron Tau picks up where Shoshana Zuboff's "Sureveillance Capitalism" leaves off. With a dizzying fountain of richly researched studies Tau demonstrates the history and current mechanisms of electronic surveillance, and describes the applications and consequences of our ignorant but willing complicity in the system. "Means Of Control" concludes with a number of practical tips to help the unwary, and if there's one bottom line takeaway it is that middle class law abiding citizens are now fully in the cross hairs. As Zuboff has pointed out, if it's free we are not the product - we are the raw material. We are all grist to the mill, ground up, mulched and then buried in our own "exhaust".

Strange things are happening and stranger things are coming. Tao offers us a first line of defence

Up to date in an information tsunami world

Accurate, timely and insightful. I bought the hardback after finishing the book in my old school effort to make permanent the knowledge and information shared in this work. From page 1 to the invaluable appendix, the book confirms that the issue of Privacy awareness is as important as TAKING ACTION TO UNDERSTAND, MONITOR AND MANAGE YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. For you and your family, employees and neighbors. The Means of Control are literally in your hands.

Devious but necessary means?

An eye-opening listen.
The author did some pretty good digging for this book, which for the most part was even keeled, however, he couldn’t resist a little political view.
Not bad enough to throw out though.
The performance was good but the style and cadence became annoying after a while and didn’t seem “serious” enough given the subject matter.
Still, it is a worthy listen.

WTF…..

Extremely informative, highlight the sneakiness in how technology companies and government interact. Book give some good recommendations on protecting ones privacy online. It’s scary how we are allowing all of this to go on behind-the-scenes. This brings to the surface those hidden tactics.

A must read

This book provides a great overview of data collection, from: what data are collected, to how collection is done, to how information in data is used (and was used) in recent world events. I’m glad author stayed at a high enough level so anyone will find book interesting. I really enjoyed listening to it.

Eye Opener

Absolutely eye opening and highly informative. it confirms suspicions I had while doing my own research, this book is absolutely a must read.

A few useful facts

Some good and useful facts. For the most part historical informational telling format. I was expecting full core facts on how to protect my right of privacy.