Surveillance valley : the secret military history of the internet / Yasha Levine.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Starting in the early 1960s, there was fear in America about the proliferation of computer database and networking technologies. People worried that these systems were going to be used by both corporations and governments for surveillance and control. Indeed, the dominant cultural view at the time was that computers were tools of repression, not liberation -- and that included the ARPANET, the military research network that would grow into the Internet we use today. Surveillance Valley starts in the past, but moves into the present, looking at the private surveillance business that powers much of Silicon Valley and the overlap between the Internet and the military-industrial complex. It also investigates and uncovers the close ties that exist between U.S. intelligence agencies and the anti-government privacy movement that has sprung up in the wake of Edward Snowden's leaks. The Internet was developed as a weapon, and remains a weapon today. American military interests continue to dominate all parts of the network, even those that supposedly stand in opposition.