Surveillance Valley in the Guardian

The UK is about to get a crash course in the dark history of the Internet

In anticipation of my UK book release, the Guardian just published a long excerpt from Surveillance Valley: “Google Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us.” In it, I examine the rise of Google and look at the company's close collaboration with America's national security apparatus — a relationship that goes back nearly two decades. 

While Google's work for the Pentagon has been making recent headlines across the world — and has even caused a minor rebellion within Google — this work is not new. Fact is, Google has been helping the military build more efficient systems of surveillance and death for at least the past 15 years, selling souped-up versions of its information technology to military and intelligence agencies, local police departments, and military contractors — including Lockheed Martin and smaller outfits like PredPol, which supplies predictive policing tech to cities around the world.

Read about this history in the Guardian — and if you’re in the UK, you can pre-order Surveillance Valley. It officially goes on sale January 3, 2019.

—Yasha Levine

Find out more at surveillancevalley.com