Best Privacy books

Extreme Privacy

What It Takes to Disappear

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.

OSINT Techniques

Resources for Uncovering Online Information

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.

Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations

The Art of Analyzing Hacked and Leaked Data

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.

Pegasus

How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

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.

À la trace

Enquête sur les nouveaux territoires de la surveillance

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.

Permanent Record

Edward Snowden's first-person memoir: the technical work that led him into the NSA's mass-surveillance programs, his reasoning for disclosure, and the Hong Kong handoff to the journalists who broke the story.

Cyberstructure

L'Internet, un espace politique

An engineer's lucid account of how the Internet actually works — and why its technical architecture is a political space that shapes human rights — by a DNS specialist at AFNIC.

La face cachée d'internet

Hackers, dark net, Tor, Anonymous, WikiLeaks, Bitcoin

A lively, expert tour of the Internet's hidden layers — hackers, the dark web, Tor, Anonymous, WikiLeaks, Bitcoin — that demystifies the jargon without dumbing it down.

Surveillance://

Les libertés au défi du numérique

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.

RGPD et droit des données personnelles

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.

The Art of Invisibility

The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data

Mitnick's accessible tour of personal privacy and anonymity, from passwords and Wi-Fi to layered operational tradecraft, told through anecdotes and step-by-step advice.

Anonymat sur Internet

Protéger sa vie privée

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).

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.