Description:

The whirlwind of social media, online dating, and mobile apps can make life a dream—or a nightmare. For every trustworthy website, there are countless jerks, bullies, and scam artists who want to harvest your personal information for their own purposes. But you can fight back, right now.

In The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy , award-winning author and investigative journalist Violet Blue shows you how women are targeted online and how to keep yourself safe. Blue’s practical, user-friendly advice will teach you how to:
–Delete personal content from websites
–Use website and browser privacy controls effectively
–Recover from and prevent identity theft
–Figure out where the law protects you—and where it doesn’t
–Set up safe online profiles
–Remove yourself from people-finder websites

Even if your privacy has already been compromised, don’t panic. It’s not too late to take control. Let The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy help you cut through the confusion and start protecting your online life.

From School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up—A thorough (but flawed) look at Internet protection aimed squarely at female users. There is a battle to be fought, and the author intends to arm the female population with the critical information they need to protect their privacy. In her least objective moments, Blue, an investigative tech reporter and self-described agitator, posits that "you actually can post or share sexy pictures of yourself and stay in control." She also states that "filthy-rich celebrities are more able than the rest of us to hide things they consider private or embarrassing because they can afford to" and should therefore keep their social media privacy suggestions to themselves. The plethora of nude celebrity photo hacking scandals seems to contradict this assertion. References to companies as "greedy" and "douchey" are further examples of biased opinion presented as fact. Blue offers clear suggestions on how to avoid becoming an Internet victim, but her unwavering confidence in her own opinions and ardor for the topic make her advice seem heavy-handed at times, which may put off teens. VERDICT This informative but flawed book works best as a resource for victims in search of a staunch advocate or as an option for adults, who can better separate the opinions from the useful facts.—Cindy Wall, Southington Library & Museum, CT

Review

"Violet Blue is not just a writer and journalist; she's also a friend and advocate to every female who has a computer or smart phone...This book is highly recommended for public and school libraries, as well as social science and technology classes."
--Becky Walton, Ingram Collection Development Librarian
When she uses the term "female," Violet inclusively means a woman of all shades on the gender identity spectrum.
The Advocate names The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy one of the Best Books You Missed in 2015. "A no-nonsense, simple-to-follow formula. Smart stuff."
"One of the best resources for learning to protect your online communications is Violet Blue's The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy. The book is relevant for both men and women who want to strengthen their cybersecurity and online privacy."
--Joe Kukura, SF Weekly
"Women face unique threats and have to deal with safety and privacy issues that few-if any-men will ever even be aware of, much less concerned about. Violet Blue does an excellent job of describing what those issues are and providing simple, actionable advice to help readers stay safe online."
--Tony Bradley, techspective
"In this must-read for anyone who uses their laptop or phone to go online, Blue details the numerous ways women and LGBT people especially face security risks . . . including identity theft, revenge porn, stalking, and all manner of scams."
--DAME Magazine
"It's up to each one of us to protect our own privacy, and The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy is a crucial weapon in that fight."
--Book Riot

About the Author

Violet Blue is a six-time Independent Publisher Book Award winning investigative journalist on cybersecurity, privacy and digital rights, having bylined for outlets including O The Oprah Magazine, Engadget, Financial Times, CNN, CBS News, San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, Yahoo News, and many others. Guardian UK called Ms. Blue, "One of the leading figures in tech writing in the world." She is a member of the Internet Press Guild and Advisor to online legal privacy resource Without My Consent.

Ms. Blue's most notable book appearance was on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.