// Alternatives
Alternatives to Permanent Record
Books in our catalog with overlapping topics and a similar reading level to Permanent Record. If Permanent Record is the wrong fit at beginner level, start here.
01 · 2023
Pegasus
The inside story of the Forbidden Stories investigation into NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, told by the journalists who ran it. The best narrative account of what commercial zero-click surveillance actually does to its targets.
Beginner4/5Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud02 · 2020
À la trace
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.
Beginner4/5Olivier Tesquet03 · 2016
Surveillance://
A lucid, accessible case for digital privacy — how mass surveillance works, why it matters, and concrete ways to take back control — by the founder of Mozilla Europe.
Beginner4/5Tristan Nitot04 · 2010
La vie privée, un problème de vieux cons ?
A provocative, well-reported take on privacy in the digital age — answering the cliché that 'young people don't care about privacy' — by an investigative journalist specialised in surveillance.
Beginner3/5Jean-Marc Manach05 · 2014
Anonymat sur Internet
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).
Beginner3/5Martin Untersinger06 · 2020
The Hacker and the State
Ben Buchanan's argument that state-on-state cyber operations are not deterrence-shaped (like nuclear) but signaling-shaped: countries use cyber to shape the environment, not to threaten escalation. Builds the case from declassified incidents.
Beginner5/5Ben Buchanan07 · 2019
Sandworm
Long-form journalism on the GRU's hacking operations, the best non-technical book on what state-level cyber actually looks like.
Beginner5/5Andy Greenberg08 · 2017
American Kingpin
A propulsive account of how Ross Ulbricht built the Silk Road dark-web drug empire as Dread Pirate Roberts, and how a handful of investigators across rival agencies finally unmasked him.
Beginner5/5Nick Bilton09 · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
Beginner5/5Kevin Poulsen10 · 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.
Beginner4/5Micah Lee