Extreme Privacy
What It Takes to Disappear · 5th Edition
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.
- Authors
- Michael Bazzell
- Published
- 2024
- Publisher
- Independently published
- Pages
- 558
- Edition
- 5th Edition
- Language
- English
Read this if
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
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
- 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.
Notes
Read it after OSINT Techniques 11e — once you've found yourself the way an investigator would, the urgency of this book lands differently. Pair with Permanent Record (Snowden) for the why and Sandworm (Greenberg) for the wider threat landscape. Bazzell's continuing IntelTechniques content keeps the playbook current between editions; the 5th edition is the most operationally complete he has shipped.
What to read before
What to read before Extreme Privacy →Beginner · 2024
Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations
Micah Lee on the operational craft of working with leaked datasets: authentication, OPSEC for sources and journalists, and the Python tooling to actually parse what arrives in your dropbox.
Beginner · 2018
Open Source Intelligence Techniques and Tools
Hassan and Hijazi's pedagogical introduction to OSINT framed inside the broader intelligence cycle (collection → processing → analysis → dissemination) rather than around a specific toolchain.
Intermediate · 2024
OSINT Techniques
Michael Bazzell's relentlessly updated technical manual for finding people, accounts, breach data, geolocation evidence, and online identifiers — the de facto reference of the modern OSINT field.
What to read next
What to read after Extreme Privacy →Intermediate · 2024
OSINT Techniques
Michael Bazzell's relentlessly updated technical manual for finding people, accounts, breach data, geolocation evidence, and online identifiers — the de facto reference of the modern OSINT field.
Intermediate · 2022
Practical Social Engineering
Joe Gray's working manual for the social-engineering side of red team and threat intel: OSINT-driven recon, pretexting, phishing infrastructure, and the legal and ethical boundaries that separate professional work from criminal activity.
Advanced · 2017
Attacking Network Protocols
James Forshaw, Project Zero veteran, on how to capture, parse, and break protocols from the wire up to the application layer, with a strong focus on building reusable analysis tooling.
Explore similar books
Alternatives to Extreme Privacy →Intermediate · 2024
OSINT Techniques
Michael Bazzell's relentlessly updated technical manual for finding people, accounts, breach data, geolocation evidence, and online identifiers — the de facto reference of the modern OSINT field.
Beginner · 2024
Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations
Micah Lee on the operational craft of working with leaked datasets: authentication, OPSEC for sources and journalists, and the Python tooling to actually parse what arrives in your dropbox.
Intermediate · 2022
Practical Social Engineering
Joe Gray's working manual for the social-engineering side of red team and threat intel: OSINT-driven recon, pretexting, phishing infrastructure, and the legal and ethical boundaries that separate professional work from criminal activity.