The Circle by Dave Eggers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This cautionary tale of a dysfunctional Utopian society may well illustrate the end of privacy as we know it. The story revolves around the Circle (no pun intended), an omnipresent tech company that implements increasingly invasive business practices on its employees, known as Circlers (hard not to draw a link to real life), as well as the world at large, in the name of full transparency.
The Circle’s ethos — secrets are lies; sharing is caring; privacy is theft — will probably leave you conflicted, depending on how far down the transparency scale you’re tipping.
You’ll also have to draw your own conclusion about how (and whether) the increased surveillance will eventually lead to a totalitarian society, because the book’s ending doesn’t provide sufficient ammunition for conspiracy theorists to come home to roost.
