Here are some notable books on Privacy, AI. and Security from 2025.
For a more comprehensive list of 500+ books from the 1960s to the present, you can download my free guide, which I recently updated: Notable Privacy Books: A Journey Through History
PRIVACY
Daniel Solove, On Privacy and Technology
From Danielle Keats Citron, Caddell and Chapman Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law: “Solove’s On Privacy and Technology is a privacy masterpiece, coming from the boldest and most important privacy thinker and scholar of our time. Solove is the ultimate teacher-his book will help you appreciate the complexities of the privacy and technology challenges of our time while seeing a path to tackling them. It is a joy to read. Solove writes beautifully and accessibly. It is an instant classic.”
Ari Ezra Waldman, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law, and author of Industry Unbound: “On Privacy and Technology offers scholars and nonexperts alike a diagnosis about what’s wrong with privacy law, written by none other than the ‘dean’ of the privacy law field. Professor Solove uses his unmatched knowledge of privacy law and keen analytical mind to dispel common myths about privacy and to direct readers, particularly policymakers, toward vanguard solutions that aim to create accountability for bad actors in the information economy. Reading On Privacy and Technology is both a tour through privacy law scholarship over the last thirty years but also a roadmap for the future. It is both accessible and essential reading. Highly recommend.”
Orin Kerr, The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World
From Andrew Weissmann, MSNBC legal analyst and former General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation: “Kerr is the most thoughtful and thought-provoking thinker we have about the Fourth Amendment. In clear and accessible language for non-lawyers, Kerr explains the notoriously uneven road the Supreme Court has travelled, and offers lucid ways out of the thicket caused by the digital revolution resulting in our most personal information being in the hands of big tech companies.”
From Robert Barnes, former Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post: “Orin Kerr is the nation’s leading expert on how to safeguard the Constitution’s guarantee of individual rights in a world of technological change unimaginable to the Framers. Everyone from journalists to Supreme Court justices turn to Kerr for clear-eyed, even-handed analysis, and this thoughtful book shows why. The Digital Fourth Amendment is a call to action for the Supreme Court to protect the Constitution’s guarantee of individual privacy. I expect this incisive guide will be invaluable to the justices as they chart the path forward.”
Ray Brescia, The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
From Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School: “At once urgent and sober, The Private is Political fundamentally reframes the threat that panopticon surveillance technologies pose to self-government and then designs institutions to meet and defeat the danger. Brescia’s wide-ranging analysis―which embeds vivid facts in powerful theories from law, philosophy, and political economy―provides an essential guide to the way we must learn to live now, if we want to keep our democracy.”
From Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus, Harvard Law School: “Technology shapes our political identities and the institutions we create and then use to make real the policies we want. Ray Brescia draws on a wide range of social scientific learning about political identity, institutions, and social movements to critique the current state of our law affecting the role of social media in shaping political identity. His intriguing proposal for ‘digital zoning,’ a regulatory regime predicated on robust disclosure and user choice, should become an important part of the on-going discussions about what our regulatory regime should become.”
Sille Obelitz Søe, Tanja Wiehn, Rikke Frank Jørgensen, and Bjarki Valtýsson, Beyond Privacy: People, Practices, Politics
From Garfield Benjamin, University of Cambridge: “As privacy becomes ever more contested and its usefulness as a term or aim is increasingly challenged, its value and role is tied to other concepts, other uses and specific contexts. By asking what privacy can (or can’t) do in those contexts, the collection engages in interdisciplinary debates that respond to the particular challenges that privacy concerns face today. The collection will be an interesting and useful read to anyone working in the areas of privacy, data, surveillance and connected sociotechnical ecosystems.”
From: Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science: “An imaginative book addressing how people’s expectations for privacy, practices and power and politics combine to set the boundary between public and private life in the digital world.”
Hideyuki Matsumi, Dara Hallinan, Diana Dimitrova, Eleni Kosta, and Paul De Hert, Data Protection and Privacy, Volume 16: Ideas That Drive Our Digital World
This book explores the complexity and depths of our digital world by providing a selection of analyses and discussions from the 16th annual international conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP): Ideas that Drive Our Digital World.
Michael Filimowicz, Privacy (Algorithms and Society)
This book focuses on encryption technologies and privacy debates in journalistic crypto-cultures, countersurveillance technologies, digital advertising, and cellular location data.
Edina Harbinja, Digital Death, Digital Assets and Post-mortem Privacy: Theory, Technology and the Law
Edina Harbinja examines the theoretical, technological and doctrinal issues surrounding online death and digital assets. By examining different areas of law, humanities and social science, she proposes the new concept of postmortal privacy (privacy of the deceased individuals) and provides answers and suggestions as to what happens to digital assets and online identity after death.
Ryan Calo, Law and Technology: A Methodical Approach
This book offers a defensible and consistent approach to the legal analysis of technology, one capable of navigating technology’s capacity to confuse and confound. Ryan Calo puts forward a step-by-step methodology for thinking about and ultimately challenging technology to meet society’s demands. The book demonstrates that, no less than health law or law and economics, law and technology deserves a field of its own. To this end, it helps formalize legal analysis of physical and digital artifacts and systems, sowing the seeds for the concept of law and technology itself
Tim Wu, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
From Lina Khan, Former Chair, U.S. Federal Trade Commission: “The Age of Extraction is remarkably astute and timely. Wu brilliantly analyzes platform power with great clarity, insight, and moral force, laying out the material stakes for people’s lives as well as a roadmap for achieving broad prosperity and economic fairness. A vital book for these troubled times.”
From Senator Amy Klobuchar: “Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction is a must-read. This is a book for anyone—from senator to student—who seeks to understand our digital economy and why we need common sense rules of the road. Wu shows us how to protect consumers, workers, small businesses, and even our democracy from dominant platforms that have inserted themselves into nearly every aspect of our lives.”
HISTORY OF PRIVACY
Martin Eiermann, The Limiting Principle: How Privacy Became a Public Issue
From Bruce G. Carruthers, author of The Economy of Promises: “Eiermann shows that the issue of privacy has become the bearer of a host of social problems, legal concerns, and political conflicts. With wit and erudition, his historical argument musters an unusually wide body of evidence and touches on many of the most important controversies of our day. This is a compelling and insightful work.”
From Elisabeth S. Clemens, author of Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State: “What should be known? By whom? For what purposes? As Martin Eiermann argues in this elegant and innovative analysis, “privacy” is not a settled legal concept but an evolving response to threats of urbanization, commercialization, and our dependence on the firms, professionals, and governments entrusted with our personal secrets.”
Tiffany Jenkins, Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life
From Alice Loxton, author of Eighteen: “A brilliantly original line of investigation, taking the reader on an epic journey through the ages . . . endlessly fascinating and full of surprises”
From Kate Fox, author of Watching the English: “Amidst all the current narrow technological determinism, it is refreshing – and empowering – to read such a nuanced, thoughtful history of this slippery concept”
PRACTICAL GUIDANCE ON PRIVACY PROGRAMS
Aaron Mendelsohn, Operationalizing Data Protection & Privacy
This book is a practical guide bridging the gap between privacy law theory and real-world implementation. Drawing from two decades of experience in cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection law, the author shares lessons honed during his career and five years of teaching at Cleveland State University School of Law. 
Teresa “T” Troester-Falk, So You Got the Privacy Officer Title. Now What?
This book is the essential guide for privacy professionals who’ve found themselves in a role that’s as complex as it is critical. Whether you’re newly appointed, evolving into the position, or simply trying to make sense of what being a Privacy Officer actually entails, this book offers clarity, confidence, and a practical path forward.
PRIVACY BY DESIGN
Robert Stribley, Design for Privacy: Keeping Personal Information Private
From Alexandra Schmidt, author of Deliberate Intervention: “Privacy lies at the heart of the user-technology relationship. Robert Stribley offers invaluable tactical advice and the broader context that designers need to make that relationship as safe as possible.”
From Heidi Trost, author of Human-Centered Security: “As a designer, you have more power over users’ privacy than you may realize. Robert shows you how to leverage that power for good with practical tips on how to get your organization to care, plenty of real examples, and clear guidance. This is the go-to privacy book written by a designer, for designers.”
Mark Leiser, Dark Patterns, Deceptive Design, and the Law: AI’s Hidden Influence on Our Digital Experience
From Professor Andrew Murray, London School of Economics: “Dark patterns are complex, hidden, and harmful. They are a mix of design, both of user interfaces and platforms, psychology, and exploitation of legal and regulatory gaps. As a result, to understand dark patterns, and how to regulate for them, requires an understanding of how people think, how systems “nudge” and influence us, and what the legal-regulatory framework is. Fortunately, Dr. Mark Leiser brings all these together and this book, which is the culmination of many years researching dark patterns and how to regulate them, is his universal resource for anyone encountering this subject whether it is for the first time or if they are already familiar with the challenges. It should be read by academics, lawyers or anyone interested in the subject, it ought to be read by designers of platforms and interfaces, it must be read by regulators. This book makes a vital contribution to a subject that is unfortunately familiar to us all.”
From Dr Cristiana Santos, Utrecht University: “Dr Mark Leiser’s Dark Patterns, Deceptive Design, and the Law is a masterful examination of one of the most insidious threats in our digital age. With a keen eye for both regulatory nuance and the deeper structural manipulations at play, Leiser moves beyond the surface-level discussion of dark patterns to reveal how deception is embedded not just in user interfaces, but in the very architecture of our digital experiences. This book is an essential resource for scholars, regulators, and anyone concerned with deceptive design and AI. Leiser’s work stands as a compelling call to action, urging us to challenge the AI systems that shape-and too often exploit-our online lives.”
Simson L. Garfinkel, Differential Privacy
In this book, Simson Garfinkel presents the underlying ideas of DP, and helps explain why DP is needed in today’s information-rich environment, why it was used as the privacy protection mechanism for the 2020 census, and why it is so controversial in some communities.
MENTAL PRIVACY
Rebecca Lemov, The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion
From Fred Turner, Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication, Stanford University: “From the Korean War to Facebook, this riveting volume tracks the history of systems built to bend our wills and rewire our minds. Timely, frightening, and impossible to put down.”
From Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design: “Tracking moments of mind control from techniques of political conversion in war camps to the suasions of religious cult groups, the airwave appeals of mass influence to the emotional experiments of recent social media and the charms of astrological cryptocurrency communities, Rebecca Lemov reveals the tantalizing historical through line of brainwashing. Its truth always just out of reach, it nonetheless asserts itself over us and implicates us in its dynamics.”
Sandra Matz, Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior
From Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of Everybody Lies: “Mindmasters is about one of the most exciting—and terrifying—developments in human history: big data’s ability to understand us better than we know ourselves. Sandra Matz shows fascinating examples of the insights embedded in big data, frightening examples of its dangers, and concrete proposals for how to make big data work best for society. A rare book that is fascinating, provocative, scary, exciting, wise, and undeniably important.”
From Katy Milkman, author of How to Change: “A riveting read, Mindmasters reveals how algorithms predict your personality traits and shape your behavior—and why it matters. Witty, accessible, and packed with interesting insights about human nature, this book will leave you with a deeper appreciation of both the potential and the pitfalls of this new trend in the digital age.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Oren Bar-Gill and Cass R. Sunstein, Algorithmic Harm: Protecting People in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Oren Bar-Gill and Cass Sunstein consider the harms and benefits of AI and algorithms and catalog the different ways in which algorithms are being or may be used in consumer and other markets. The authors identify the market conditions under which these uses injure consumers and consider policy and regulatory responses that could reduce the risks consumers, investors, workers, and voters face now―and in the future. Democracy and self-government are at risk; there is a great deal that can be done to reduce that risk.
Rainer Mühlhoff, The Ethics of AI: Power, Critique, Responsibility
In a world where artificial intelligence increasingly influences the fabric of our daily lives, this accessible book offers a critical examination of AI and its deep entanglement with power structures. Rather than focusing on doomsday scenarios, it emphasises how AI impacts our everyday interactions and social norms in ways that fundamentally reshape society. By examining the different forms of exploitation and manipulation in the relationship between humans and AI, the book advocates for collective responsibility, better regulation and systemic change.
Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want
From Charlie Jane Anders, author of Victories Greater Than Death: “If you’ve been confused and bedazzled by all the chatter about AI, this book will help you make sense of all of it. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna break down all the science-fictional flights of fancy, and painstakingly reveal the troubling reality that lies beneath. The AI Con is required reading for anyone who wants to survive the twenty-first century.”
From Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI: “With their expansive, interdisciplinary expertise, Bender and Hanna write with absolute authority and unapologetic clarity about all the ways AI companies wield and weaponize language—in their marketing hype and as training data for their monstrous AI models—to create a less rigorous, less verifiable, more unequal, and more BS-filled world. Despite the depressing nature of their subject, Bender and Hanna narrate it with incredible wit and verve…Come for the piercing observations; leave with the tools to slice your way through the absurdist narratives that prop up the AI industry and to hold it accountable.”
TECH COMPANIES AND LEADERS
Karen Hao, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI
From Shoshana Zuboff, Charles Edward Wilson Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School: “Empire of AI is a heroic work. Karen Hao braved many obstacles with gritty determination as she traveled the yellow brick road to the Oz of the storied corporation OpenAI to bring us this work of essential public education. Her courage was rewarded with truth. Altman, a cunning young man with outsized ambition and excellent ‘people skills,’ condemned the world to the digital violence of an approach to ‘artificial intelligence’ that can only exist by devouring the totality of the world’s information and then the world itself. Mr. Altman was no wizard, and the seers of our digital future had little vision beyond their own baseless rhetoric and the billions of dollars from greedy or guileless investors. Hao is a gifted journalist and a deep thinker who reveals the historical significance and societal consequences of Silicon Valley’s AI spectacle, even as she meticulously documents a company and its leader hellbent on getting there first with no idea where they are going. If you think the digital future is safe in the hands of brilliant scientists, smart investors, and earnest political leaders, read this book and think again.”
From Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor, MIT: “Our lives are about to be remade by artificial intelligence—or to be more accurate, by a few companies run by a few very self-confident people. If you ever wondered whether all of this is inevitable, whether to believe all the promises of tech luminaries, whether we could save a little bit of our democracy in the age of AI, then read this book!”
Keach Hagey, The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future
From Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Achilles Trap: “The Optimist is a wonder of fair-minded investigation and page-turning storytelling. It reveals Sam Altman―our self-styled messiah of the age of artificial intelligence―in all his charismatic self-contradiction. A must-read for anyone worried that AI will alter or even end human society.”
From Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: “Keach Hagey is one of the best writers about media and tech. Here she tells the story of Sam Altman and the AI revolution. And a fantastic story it is, not only because it affects all of our lives and futures, but because it is told so well.”
Sarah Wynn-Williams, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
From Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times: “A darkly hilarious, shocking tale that starts as farce and ends as tragedy. It combines withering portraits of Facebook’s insular, callous leadership with harrowing details of what Wynn-Williams calls the company’s “lethal carelessness” on the global stage.”
From Marina Hyde, Guardian: “Amazing: of all the books in all the world Mr. Free Speech Zuckerberg wants to ban, it’s the one about him'”
Adam Becker, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
From Arvind Narayanan, Professor, Princeton University: “More Everything Forever is a gripping book about the unlikely yet very real nexus of tech tycoons, eccentric philosophers, and grandiose futurists. Becker combines masterful storytelling and lucid exposition to lay out what’s at stake for the future of technology and, more importantly, humanity.”
From Christie Aschwanden, author of Good to Go: “Adam Becker’s More Everything Forever dismantles the toxic techno-optimism endemic in Silicon Valley and outlines why the most pressing problems society faces can’t be solved with technology alone. The book is a must-read for understanding why the visions of the future promoted by today’s techno oligarchs are built on pseudoscience and far-fetched fantasies mixed with racism, eugenics, and colonialism. Becker argues that focusing on invented future problems that may or may not ever come to pass gives techno-optimists license to neglect urgent and real problems like global warming and income inequality that are threatening humanity in the here and now. More Everything Forever feels particularly urgent and timely as billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos vie for political power.”
Michael Steinberger, The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State
In The Philosopher in the Valley, journalist Michael Steinberger explores the world of Alex Karp, Palantir, and the future that they are leading us toward. It is an urgent and illuminating work about one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive and powerful companies, whose technology is at the leading edge of the surveillance state.
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Professor Daniel J. Solove is a law professor at George Washington University Law School. Through his company, TeachPrivacy, he has created the largest library of computer-based privacy and data security training, with more than 180 courses.
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