American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It

US intelligence agencies - the eponymous American spies - are exceedingly aggressive, pushing and sometimes bursting through the technological, legal and political boundaries of lawful surveillance. Written for a general audience by a surveillance law expert, this book educates readers about how the reality of modern surveillance differs from popular understanding. Weaving the history of American surveillance - from J. Edgar Hoover through the tragedy of September 11th to the fusion centers and mosque infiltrators of today - the book shows that mass surveillance and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. Granick shows how surveillance law has fallen behind while surveillance technology has given American spies vast new powers. She skillfully guides the reader through proposals for reining in massive surveillance with the ultimate goal of surveillance reform.

1. Modern surveillance: massive, classified, and indiscriminate; 2. Word games; 3. Snowden, surveillance whistleblowers, and democracy; 4. We kill people based on metadata; 5. The shadow of September 11th; 6. Modern surveillance and counterterrorism; 7. Americans caught up in the foreign intelligence net; 8. Warrantless wiretapping of Americans under Section 702; 9. Nothing to hide?: a short history of surveillance abuses; 10. The minimal comfort of minimization; 11. Do unto others: why Americans should protect foreigners' privacy rights; 12. US surveillance law before September 11th; 13. American spies after September 11th: illegality and legalism; 14. Modern surveillance and the Fourth Amendment; 15. The failures of external oversight; 16. The National InSecurity Agency; 17. The future of surveillance.