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Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet Kindle Edition

by Julian Assange (Author), Jacob Appelbaum (Author), Andy Müller-Maguhn (Author), Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 236 ratings
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"Obligatory reading for everyone interested in the reality of our freedoms." —Slavoj Žižek

Cypherpunks are activists who advocate the widespread use of strong cryptography (writing in code) as a route to progressive change. Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of and visionary behind WikiLeaks, has been a leading voice in the cypherpunk movement since its inception in the 1980s.

Now, in what is sure to be a wave-making new book, Assange brings together a small group of cutting-edge thinkers and activists from the front line of the battle for cyber-space to discuss whether electronic communications will emancipate or enslave us. Among the topics addressed are: Do Facebook and Google constitute “the greatest surveillance machine that ever existed,” perpetually tracking our location, our contacts and our lives? Far from being victims of that surveillance, are most of us willing collaborators? Are there legitimate forms of surveillance, for instance in relation to the “Four Horsemen of the Infopocalypse” (money laundering, drugs, terrorism and pornography)? And do we have the ability, through conscious action and technological savvy, to resist this tide and secure a world where freedom is something which the Internet helps bring about?

The harassment of WikiLeaks and other Internet activists, together with attempts to introduce anti-file sharing legislation such as SOPA and ACTA, indicate that the politics of the Internet have reached a crossroads. In one direction lies a future that guarantees, in the watchwords of the cypherpunks, “privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful”; in the other lies an Internet that allows government and large corporations to discover ever more about internet users while hiding their own activities. Assange and his co-discussants unpick the complex issues surrounding this crucial choice with clarity and engaging enthusiasm.
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  1. Print length
    195 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    January 9, 2013
  5. File size
    1922 KB
  6. Page Flip
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  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julian Assange is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks. An original contributor to the cypherpunk mailing list, Assange is the author of numerous software projects in line with the cypherpunk philosophy, including the Rubberhose encryption system and the original code for WikiLeaks. An ‘ethical hacker’ in his teens, and subsequently an activist and internet service provider to Australia during the 1990s, he is the co-author (with Sulette Dreyfus) of Underground, a history of the international hacker movement. Julian is currently a refugee under the protection of the government of Ecuador, and lives in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Jacob Appelbaum is a staff research scientist at the University of Washington, and a developer and advocate for the Tor Project, which is an online anonymity system for everyday people to fight against surveillance and against internet censorship.

Andy Müller-Maguhn is a long time member of, and former spokesman for, the Chaos Computer Club in Germany. A specialist on surveillance he runs a company called Cryptophone, which markets secure voice communication devices to commercial clients.

Jérémie Zimmermann is the co-founder and spokesperson for the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, the most prominent European organization defending anonymity rights online and promoting awareness of regulatory attacks on online freedoms.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AZBI4IO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ OR Books (January 9, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 9, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1922 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 195 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1944869085
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 236 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
236 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Margarita Sanchez
5.0 out of 5 stars Cypherpunks / J.Assange, J.Appelbaum, A.Muller-Maguhn, J.Zimmerman, c.2012 Julian Assange
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2013
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Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet

Excellently written, 186 pages which educates basic - advanced knowledge of the worldwide internet. A must read!!... Covering our past into our future; this book arose from the meeting of internet activists, Jacob Appelbaum-USA, Andy Muller-Maguhn-Germany and Jeremie Zimmerman-Europe, with Julian Assange (under house arrest) in England on March 20, 2012.

Editor in Chief of Wikileaks, Australian citizen Julian Assange remains under political asylum in the Equadorian embassy as he continues to fight extradition to the USA by secret grand jury indictment. Julian Assange, in his intro, states: "This book is a watchman's shout in the night." ..."Our task is to secure self-determination where we can, to hold back the coming dystopia where we cannot, and if all else fails, to accelerate its self-destruction."

Cypherpunks covers: Persecution of Wikileaks, Increasing Communication & Surveillance, Military Intelligence & Private Sector Spying of Cyberspace, Fighting Total Surveillance With Laws & Physics, Internet Politics & Economics, Censorship ... and "Privacy for the Weak, Transparency for the Powerful".

A few quotes:

Julian, "...we're now at a stage where the human population is doubling every twenty-five years or so--but the capacity of surveillance is doubling every eighteen months. The surveillance curve is dominating the population curve. There is no direct escape. We're now at the stage where just $10 million can buy you a unit to permanently store mass intercepts of a medium sized country."

Jeremie: "I think we have to develop the two approaches in parallel. We need to have free software that everybody can understand..modify..scrutinize.. I think free software is the bases for a free online society...We need to have strong cryptography... We need communication tools like Tor, or like the Cryptophone, to be able to communicate only with the people you want to communicate with."

Julian: "...there are math problems that you can create that even the strongest state cannot break... But cryptography can solve the bulk interception problem, and it's the bulk interception which is a threat to global civilization. Individual targeting is not the threat." ..."So new networks are being built up on top of the internet, virtual private networks, and their privacy comes from cryptography. That is an industrial power base that is stopping cryptography from being banned."

THESE INTERNET ACTIVISTS HAVE SHARED THEIR LOVE FOR FREEDOM AND THEIR OVERSIGHT OF THE CURRENT MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL TREND OF GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE & METADATA, LEADING TOWARD "GLOBAL TOTALITARIAN SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY".

IT IS TOTALLY IN OUR INTERESTS TO BE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND VIGILANT... IT'S A MUST READ, MUST SHARE!!!!!!!!
3 people found this helpful
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David Marks
5.0 out of 5 stars Bobbing & Weaving....
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2013
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There's nothing "bobbing and/or weaving" about this dialogue, it's a brilliant conversation, and one which uses numerous (and astute) analogies and facts, to explain what's happening with the internet, the public/private blurring of lines, the NSA, our freedom, and much more. For the record, I'm not a right-wing OR left-wing fanatic, but rather a 71 year old agnostic (at least regarding religion), who can see the writing on the wall.

This book is incredibly important and vital to all of us, as is Julian Assange. I was beginning to think he wasn't that relevant at this point in history, but after reading this book I realize just how crucial, pivotal, and impactful his thoughts and actions are.

Given we're communicating here on a major web presence, namely Amazon, I actually hope that they are listening to our conversation and thoughts regarding this seminal issue. But only to the extent that they learn something about the concept of what freedom really is!
6 people found this helpful
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Gordon E. Anderson
4.0 out of 5 stars Not what you'd expect
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2013
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This book is a surprise on several levels, the first being its physical size: It's pretty small and not too long (about 150 pages).

Next (and more importantly), it's basically the transcription of conversations of 4 guys who work at the forefront of privacy and crypto issues apparently sitting around and talking. And at first, it might be easy to mistake their banter as something like that of paranoid stoners, but after the initial impression rubs off you begin to realize that these guys are really getting at the heart of some very big issues that practically no one (outside of Cypherpunk circles) is thinking about.

Actually, as you penetrate the inner chapters you begin to realize that these guys have really thought about and worked directly with some of the issues they are discussing, and that these issues are some of the key issues facing modern society today, at least as far as communications, privacy and economics are concerned. Even though the interaction is informal (or perhaps because of it), you find that these guys are able to fluently discuss and debate issues that most people remain blithely unaware of.

Key for me are the discussions about economics and democracy. Indeed, rather than the cold-war or Islamophobic paranoia that some governments have acted upon over the years, perhaps the key danger citizens face to their freedoms is really the merger of the state with vast corporate entities that have become defacto entrusted with intimate keys to information about our lives. Interestingly, Assange attempts a very US Cypherpunkly devils advocate stance: "Perhaps it's OK to give over communications to big businesses so long as governments stop interfering, because they are reacting to real potential benefits in the market". To which Jacob Appelbaum rightly counters, "Well, what if the Private Prison industry continued to manipulate laws in order to boost their profits and incarcerate far more people (say those that try to block pro-incarceration laws)"?

(What I couldn't help but think about is, what if you were a known dissident that the government wanted to silence? What if they could easily dig out all of your (eg) porn searches from Google or Bing or whatever? Could they then design a life-ruining temptation to send directly at you in order to disgrace your name to the public or cause you some serious legal issues? This clearly would not be very difficult in the current milieu.)

It's heady deep stuff, and arguably a conventionally written book on these issues would have sunk like a ton of bricks. This lighter format allows the easy airing in a very readable way.

This is, therefore, an extremely important book containing words by 3rd gen cypherpunks (well, some of them...Julian is arguably 2nd gen or possibly 1st gen) who really know the issues and have, after all, been writing code. This is the book you should read right after THIS MACHINE KILLS SECRETS and, arguably, Oliver Stone's recent book.
24 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Aditya
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good
Reviewed in India on August 27, 2023
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Julian Assange needs no introduction and it is the perfect book if you wanna know the importance of privacy and cryptography
One person found this helpful
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fdecollibus
4.0 out of 5 stars Un dialogo interessante
Reviewed in Italy on February 1, 2020
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Un libro interessante, che narra la prospettiva del milieu culturale di Assange. Bella anche l’idea di riproporre la forma del dialogo non platonico ma in presa diretta, riportando quello che effettivamente hanno detto i protagonisti al tavolo. Questo purtroppo è anche il limite del libro, che si sarebbe giovato di una maggiore rielaborazione dei contenuti, anche se probabilmente ne avrebbe perso qualcosa in freschezza.
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Luis F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Reviewed in Mexico on April 13, 2018
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muy recomendado, es un libro que te dará mucho de que pensar, mas que una lectura obligada es una lectura atrasada.
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BENOIT VOVAN
5.0 out of 5 stars Un livre qui éveille les consciences!
Reviewed in France on February 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
Julian Assange, co-fondateur de WikiLeaks en a bavé comme tous les lanceurs d'alerte.
Un bouquin glaçant mais incontournable si l'on veut comprendre les rouages du pouvoir et des jeux d'influences.

Un bijou!
2 people found this helpful
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C.Gallagher
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed this a lot
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2017
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I really enjoyed reading this, it made me feel like a fly on the wall to listen in with some of the most interesting characters of our generation. And its a great suppliment to other books on wikileaks topics.
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