SKU: 11362339933

The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money And Information

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The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money And InformationThe Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money And Information Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behaviorsilently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to

The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money And Information

Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior—silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so—and to set limits on how big data affects our lives.

Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior.

Frank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Demanding transparency is only the first step. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.

'Recognized internationally as a landmark work of law and political economy.' - Commonweal

'If you are a person in America, then there are equations trying to learn more about you… Some of these equations work for private companies and some of them work for the government, but they all generate correlations based on your behavior… Frank Pasquale’s new book The Black Box Society is a tour of how computational intelligence has come to dominate three important parts of American life: reputation, search, and finance.' - New Republic

'Frank Pasquale’s notable new book, The Black Box Society, tries to come to grips with the dangers of ‘runaway data’ and ‘black box algorithms’ more comprehensively than any other book to date… It’s an important read for anyone who is interested in the hidden pitfalls of ‘big data’ and who wants to understand just how quantified our lives have become without our knowledge.' - Slate

'Everyone who uses the Internet for entertainment, education, news or commerce is implicated in a web of data collection whose breadth surpasses ordinary awareness… As [Pasquale’s] expose…shows, this is a society in which basic functions are performed in deliberate obscurity through the collection and algorithmic manipulation of personal data… In The Black Box Society, Pasquale finds reason to believe that even some of the most secretive and unresponsive institutions can be held to account. Elucidating the problem is a first step.' - Nature

'The Black Box Society offers a good dose of fresh thinking and may advance our debates over privacy. It also helps greatly that it is a good read, not just for those who are curious about privacy but also for those who are already familiar with the privacy literature.' - Science

'Frank Pasquale’s new book on the secret algorithms that motor the monstrous heart of big data is a timely work of non-fiction, a ‘true conspiracy’ about regulatory weakness in the face of technological hubris and greed.' - Flavorwire

'Pasquale has emerged as one of the go-to thinkers on Big Data and the algorithmic economy, and The Black Box Society (along with his Twitter feed) is a great—if discomfiting—place to start. You’ll come away overwhelmed by the speed and recklessness of data compilation and its uses and abuses.' - Flavorwire

'Required reading in many law school and computer science courses… Details how secret databases and little-known applications of AI algorithms have had harmful effects on finance, business, education, and politics. These opaque practices violate personal privacy, lower credit ratings, and make unfair or biased decisions on parole, mortgage, and job applications.' - Issues in Science and Technology

'By carefully breaking down ‘the business practices of leading Internet and finance companies, focusing on their use of proprietary reputation, search, and finance technologies,’ Pasquale pulls off an amazing feat of explanation, simultaneously and seamlessly explaining how and why black boxes exist, as well as what they can control and what happens when society entrusts black box technology with consequential decisions and hands immense power to the black box firms of Silicon Valley and Wall Street… The Black Box Society is a first-rate work of synthesis, combining ideas from law and economics, interpretive social science, science studies, and the philosophy of technology into an essential study of the political economy of information.' - Law Library Journal

'The Black Box Society is a frightening portrait of the ever more powerful shadowy world that blocks light from reaching our everyday lives. It is also a call to action, with a range of suggestions that inevitably pale in comparison to the gargantuan task at hand. But small steps sometimes have outsize consequences. Just ask the folks who control what we see, influence what we buy, and determine whether we can pay for it.' - Reading the Markets

'The algorithmic control that law scholar Frank Pasquale eloquently and intelligently details and analyzes goes beyond money information and into almost every aspect of our lives. For this reason, although it might appear merely to be a book about technology and finance, The Black Box Society, ultimately, is a radical and political work that deserves wide attention… The Black Box Society includes, for example, a fine explanation of the way that corporate and government surveillance work in concert and why we should be concerned about both… [Pasquale’s] brutal on the subject of the NSA, but devastating in his critique of Facebook, Twitter and Google and the myths that continue to surround them: myths of neutrality, myth about the ephemeral nature of their power and more. His analysis of search is pointed and poignant, underlining that we need to understand it better and treat search results more critically and sceptically… Pasquale’s detailed analyses, and his recipes not just for transparency but also for accountability, for more rigour in regulation and harder-hitting enforcement, deserve a careful read—and then action.' - Times Higher Education

'This book by Pasquale is disturbing. The premise is that corporate and public unchecked use of computer algorithms to collect and analyze data harms the public… Pasquale calls out Google, Facebook, and the financial industry for unchecked use of data to make profits and broken promises of privacy protection.' - Library Journal

SPECIFICATIONS:

Author:Frank Paskual - Фрэнк Паскуале

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Language:English

Publication Date:2016

Number of pages:320 pst

Format:Paperback

Width:156 mm / 6,1'

Height:235 mm / 9,3'

Weight:345 g

ISBN:9780674970847

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SKU: 11362339933

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4.4 ★★★★★
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Renee Brown
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 5
Ladytree
Format: Paperback
It's a good read
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2025
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Violet
Cuba, US
★★★★★ 5
Addicting
Format: Paperback
Very good! Read the whole thing in the span of 2 days, would read again!!
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Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2025
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Dakota
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 4
so good
Format: Kindle
It’s rare I get a book and literally can’t put it down and in the brief moments I did all I could think about is what Happens next.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2026
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Cassie Lynn
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
made me homesick in the best way.
Format: Kindle
I’m not good at reviews but this book was a beautiful disaster. I need to know of the story right now. lol.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2025
A
Ash
Battle Creek, US
★★★★★ 3
cowgirl romance say what
Format: Paperback
When a city girl inherits a horse farm from her estranged late aunt. she never expects to fall head over heels for the grumpy hot farrier who dislikes her. Molly McDaniel's life is not going great, her crushing student loans haunt her, her back to back jobs to just get by take up most of her time, and her dream of starting an event planning business has been put on the backburner. When she gets news that she has inherited her late estranged aunt's run down, struggling horse barn, this could be her chance to finally get her life back in track if she can sell it.... yet when she gets there she meets Shani, the hot cocky farrier who was close to her aunt and who dislikes Molly for being the one to inherit the horse farm. Shani refuses to give up on the barn and dislikes Molly for even thinking about wanting to sell it. Molly knows she can't take care of the horse farm, she has no experience, yet the longer she spends there getting to know all the people who were working on it with her aunt and actually spending more time with Shani, she begins to fall in love with both the farm and Shani. Will Molly risk it all and keep the farm and try and convince Shani that she means to stay, or will she finally chase after her dreams and take the easy way out? This was a really easy to read cowgirl romance, but it just felt like it was missing something for me. I was hoping for some further development in the romance or some actual chemistry, but it just wasn't there for me. I really wanted to like this one but just felt like it was okay at best and that it could have been better. I would say out of all the Jennifer Dugan books I've read, this was the best one. Molly and Shani are opposites and dislike each other from the start but work to overcome their differences and stop fighting their attraction to one another. It's a easy contemporary farm girl x city girl romance and I think anyone who enjoys a sapphic romance should definitely give it a go.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2024

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