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myrhial's review
4.0
This is an excellent book explaining both why you should care for online safety and how you should go about it. If the worst has already happened, this book can still help you recover. It sticks to the point and offers practical todos and links. It also explains how the whole thing is a process, and how patience is needed, but that if you get on top of things and stay there you can exercise quite a bit of control as well as keep yourself (better) out of harms way.
The only reason this book isn't getting five stars from me is that while it is directed towards women, it actually is a little unfair towards men. It falls into generalisations, offers no sources to the data it claims to have, and relies upon anecdotes. The writer at times admits that the same things do happen to men, but then falls back into trivializing the issue. I full well believe you can write a book oriented towards women without doing this. Or alternatively, while written by a woman, this could have been a gender neutral book. Even if the claim that women are more often targets is true, and even if the author only has examples on specific ways that women are at risk, the author could have worked with other sources or stuck to what is true for all genders. Because while stories about how marketeers target women specifically are interesting to know about, they don't really add that much in the end.
The only reason this book isn't getting five stars from me is that while it is directed towards women, it actually is a little unfair towards men. It falls into generalisations, offers no sources to the data it claims to have, and relies upon anecdotes. The writer at times admits that the same things do happen to men, but then falls back into trivializing the issue. I full well believe you can write a book oriented towards women without doing this. Or alternatively, while written by a woman, this could have been a gender neutral book. Even if the claim that women are more often targets is true, and even if the author only has examples on specific ways that women are at risk, the author could have worked with other sources or stuck to what is true for all genders. Because while stories about how marketeers target women specifically are interesting to know about, they don't really add that much in the end.
optimisticcautiously's review
4.0
Finally, a down-to-Earth guide that acknowledged how much harder it is for women on the Internet! It was easy to read (fairly quick too, if you are trying to absorb it all before implementing) and, unlike so many guides, aimed at the non-technical.
Two major criticisms: (1) to implement ALL of the tips, you need $$$ and some of the prevention tips are beyond my means; and (2) there are certain sections where the instructions are too sparse to implement - however, Blue is detailed enough with the concept and vocabulary so that you have the means to seek out more instruction. I would have rather had a longer, more detailed book, but I understand the feasibility of that was lacking, especially if you wanted to keep it non-technical.
All in all, after reading, I feel I have some tools to rebuild my digital life and protect myself for my next foray into that world. The book felt geared to me, was not over my head (like some of the technical books my bookstore pushed on me) and gave me some control quickly. I can always go more in-depth later.
Two major criticisms: (1) to implement ALL of the tips, you need $$$ and some of the prevention tips are beyond my means; and (2) there are certain sections where the instructions are too sparse to implement - however, Blue is detailed enough with the concept and vocabulary so that you have the means to seek out more instruction. I would have rather had a longer, more detailed book, but I understand the feasibility of that was lacking, especially if you wanted to keep it non-technical.
All in all, after reading, I feel I have some tools to rebuild my digital life and protect myself for my next foray into that world. The book felt geared to me, was not over my head (like some of the technical books my bookstore pushed on me) and gave me some control quickly. I can always go more in-depth later.
macroscopicentric's review
2.0
Not for me. Not a fan of the tone, was looking for something more matter-of-fact/neutral. And for someone who works in tech and just spends a lot of time on the Internet in general, the content felt very common sense. I only got a couple of new resources out of it. I'm glad it exists but I was hoping for something more thorough than Internet Privacy 101. However, I AM keeping it around because the "if you're attacked" section feels like a helpful checklist.
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