// Comparison

Extreme Privacy vs RGPD et droit des données personnelles: Which Should You Read?

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

Intermediate

5/52024

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.

Intermediate

3/52021

RGPD et droit des données personnelles

Fabrice Mattatia

A complete French manual on data-protection law under the GDPR and the 2018 loi Informatique et Libertés — obligations, rights and how to comply — by an engineer and doctor of law.

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.

DPOs, developers, managers and students who need a clear, structured guide to GDPR obligations and French data-protection law in practice.

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.

Readers outside the EU legal context, or anyone wanting security technique; it's a legal-compliance manual, and law changes, so check the latest edition.

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.

A clear, complete French manual on GDPR and data-protection law for non-lawyers.
Mattatia is both an engineer and a doctor of law, so it bridges technical and legal worlds.
Law evolves: use the most recent edition and verify against current CNIL guidance.

How they compare

We rate Extreme Privacy higher (5/5 against 3/5 for RGPD et droit des données personnelles). For most readers, that means Extreme Privacy is the primary pick and RGPD et droit des données personnelles is a useful follow-up.

Both books target intermediate-level readers, so the choice is about topic, not difficulty.

Extreme Privacy and RGPD et droit des données personnelles both cover Privacy, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

Keep reading

Extreme Privacy

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