// Comparison
À la trace vs Anonymat sur Internet: Which Should You Read?
Two cybersecurity books on Privacy, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.
An investigative map of modern surveillance — from data brokers and facial recognition to contact-tracing — charting how continuous digital tracking became normal, by a French tech journalist.
A practical French guide to online anonymity and privacy — proxies, VPNs, Tor, secure messaging and mobile — by a Le Monde cybersecurity journalist (later one of the Pegasus reporters).
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Key takeaways
- A 2020 investigative cartography of the new surveillance — data brokers, facial recognition, tracing.
- Tesquet reports with specifics, making the abstract surveillance economy concrete.
- Read for the landscape and the cases; pair with Nitot/Untersinger for what to do about it.
- A clear, practical French primer on online anonymity for ordinary users.
- Written by Untersinger (Le Monde), later a Pegasus revelations reporter — credible and grounded.
- From 2014: the principles hold (Tor, VPNs, messaging), but verify specific tools against current advice.
How they compare
We rate À la trace higher (4/5 against 3/5 for Anonymat sur Internet). For most readers, that means À la trace is the primary pick and Anonymat sur Internet is a useful follow-up.
Both books target beginner-level readers, so the choice is about topic, not difficulty.
À la trace and Anonymat sur Internet both cover Privacy, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.