// Comparison

Anonymat sur Internet vs Extreme Privacy: Which Should You Read?

Two cybersecurity books on Privacy, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.

Beginner

3/52014

Protéger sa vie privée

Martin Untersinger

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).

Intermediate

5/52024

Extreme Privacy

What It Takes to Disappear

Michael Bazzell

Michael Bazzell's defender-side companion to OSINT Techniques: a step-by-step program for removing yourself from data brokers, public records, and the everyday surveillance economy without going off-grid.

Read this if

Non-experts who want concrete, post-Snowden steps to protect their privacy online, explained clearly by a journalist who covers the field.

Anyone whose threat model includes stalkers, doxxers, abusive ex-partners, hostile foreign governments, or simply the data-broker industry. Also the canonical reference for journalists, executives, public defenders, and investigators who need their personal footprint to stop being a vector.

Skip this if

Security professionals wanting depth, or anyone needing 2025-current tooling; it's a 2014 guide, so specific tools and threat models have moved on.

Readers who want philosophical privacy theory rather than a 558-page operational checklist. Bazzell does not argue for privacy — he assumes you're sold and shows you the work. Also US-centric; the LLC, mail-forwarding, and DMV chapters require translation outside North America.

Key takeaways

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.

Privacy is a continuous practice, not a one-time purge: data brokers re-acquire your records every quarter, and the workflow is what holds the line.
The hardest links to break are the ones you created yourself — utility accounts, professional licensing, vehicle titles — and most of the book is the playbook for breaking them.
Most leaks come from people who used to know you; the book's chapters on family, devices, and shared services are the most underrated.

How they compare

We rate Extreme Privacy higher (5/5 against 3/5 for Anonymat sur Internet). For most readers, that means Extreme Privacy is the primary pick and Anonymat sur Internet is a useful follow-up.

Anonymat sur Internet is pitched at beginner level. Extreme Privacy is pitched at intermediate level. Read the easier one first if you're not yet comfortable with the topic.

Anonymat sur Internet and Extreme Privacy both cover Privacy, Operational Security, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

Keep reading

Anonymat sur Internet

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