Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet Hardcover – February 6, 2018

Yasha Levine traces the history of the development of the internet starting as a government counter-insurgency tool to a full-blown surveillance state with the complicity of big tech companies. Also the fake "privacy" tools like Tor pushed to give users a false sense of security while being spied on all the same.

This book provides a cogent and a valuable study of what lurks behind the shiny new toys modern telecommunications have given us.

People are starting to see the internet as a failed utopia - but the story Yasha tells as he draws a history of the internet is that there was never a utopia.Those who want to dismiss the book will sneer that everyone knows the military history of the internet - in the same way that everyone knows that Tor is funded by the US military establishment, and that this is somehow irrelevant.But if you read the book you will find a well researched counter narrative - a third version of story most people don't know - the thinking within DARPA that was about counter insurgency, asymmetrical war, and surveillance.Previously untold stories, like the privatization of the internet (that warrant multiple volumes of discussion in their own right) form the better part of a chapter mid way through this book - a critical narrative when you consider that wealthy internet moguls are our modern day railroad barons, and their success is based largely on public investment.Anyone who has a developed understanding of imperialism, and the US as a modern imperialist power, will find the chapters on Tor and the crypto movement particularly entertaining - cyber libertarians who rail against the state, while cashing state department checks and thinking they are smart ones, meanwhile being used as a part of a soft power regime change strategy.

As I read Mr. Levine's book, it was hard not to be reminded of the scene in the movie "Casablanca" where Louis (the Prefect) goes into the back room at Rick's and declares, "I am shocked! Shocked to find gambling here!" and is then handed his winnings by a casino employee.As a person who has worked deeply with the Internet for almost 25 years, I thought this book would provide some interesting information on the beginning and early times of the Internet, well before my time. Honestly, it falls well short of that: most of what he writes is hardly "secret". In fact, it's a compendium of the various ways governments and (apparently very disturbing to Mr. Levine) businesses use the Internet to collect data; and sometimes (often?) misuse that data.It's hard not to like this book, up to a point. Mr. Levine writes well. The problem is that he digresses from the subject at hand more often than Wayne Campbell in Wayne's World. As importantly, I may have enjoyed the book more had Mr. Levine chosen to be a bit less (honestly, a lot less) obviously biased toward liberal politics in both his reporting and his conclusions. The line between fact and opinion is often blurry.I would only recommend this book to readers little or no previous knowledge about the Internet and its workings -- I believe more advanced readers will come away somewhat disappointed, as I did; though I do have to say that some of the many capsule biographies of the players made for somewhat interesting light reading.

I found this to be a very well researched and readable account of the military origins of the internet alongside the PR campaign to try and get the general public to think otherwise; with exposure of the Tor projects deep military links the perfect example of these two threads.

Levine's message is spot on: high technology is not going to save us from Big Brother, the nightmare of surveillance and control that Orwell warned us against. No, in the end, we will have to save ourselves. But first we must WAKE UP! Today, the huge telecoms, Google, Facebook, Amazon, even Apple, are a part of the problem. All of them are highly integrated with CIA and NSA and threaten our freedom. The problem is not somewhere else, not over there, not with Russia or China, it's right here. It has been all along, as Levine shows in his fine book. The Internet was always about counterinsurgency, surveillance and control.If I could, I'd give Levine's book six stars. It's the most important book I've read in awhile.

This is a scary book but not for the reasons you may think. The author writes, “you won’t find this in any of the recent history books”, prior to telling his version of history on multiple occasions. Well, he’s absolutely correct except, in fact, you won’t find his version in ANY history book because what he is writing is pure fantasy and reads like Soviet era propaganda. As well, he’s taking advantage of the fact that most people reading his book were only children or not even born during the periods he writes about or were not close enough to the actual happenings to have the knowledge to call foul. That’s what is scary, along with too many people are going to read this pure propaganda piece and believe it because it’s popular to believe our government is involved in everything negative and little knowledge/reason to believe otherwise. What’s most disconcerting are the number of 4 and 5 star reviews by people who have read the book and believe what is written without credible proof to back up the author’s alternate version of history. Having been peripherally involved in the early ARPANET in the 70s and the evolution into modern TCP/IP networking and the Internet back in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s this book is certainly not how I remember it. In fact, one will be far better served by throwing this book in the trash and reading Wikipedia - at least the Wikipedia version has some recognizable reality.

The internet began as a military project. Not just any military project, a project designed entirely to act in the service of counterinsurgency and tracking. Despite the fact that ARPAnet has become the commercial/corporate internet those primary purposes seem to have changed very little.I am a huge fan of Levine's journalism and am very glad I picked up this book.

Excellent. Very informative

In the 1960s, when the public first gained knowledge of the plans for the independently interconnected network of servers that we now refer to as the "Internet", grave concerns about the expansion of government surveillance on society in general and dissidents in particular were loudly voiced.50 years later and we're living in a Brave New World, merrily providing various governments and corporations all kinds of data about ourselves, our likes/dislikes, political leanings, sexual proclivities, etc. I'm more concerned than ever...

An exceptional survey of the origins of Internet that goes beyond the privacy violation stories peddled by mainstream media.

Nothing wrong with this item. The book is interesting and opens your eyes to a lot of historical elements that have led to the internet we have today. The way the book is written is a little odd, but still worth a read.

The book offers a fairly detailed account of the origins of the internet and ARPANET, but some of the details are boring.