Protect your digital identity
Fake it!

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The Book

What People are Saying

  • This is an urgently needed, hands-on guide how everyone can protect their data and, ultimately, their identity in the age of Facebook and Google, intrusive apps and government surveillance. It’s a warning to not voluntarily turn us into machine readable objects that can be traded, manipulated and exploited by large digital platforms.

    Andrew Keen, author of “The Internet is Not the Answer,” “Digital Vertigo” and “The Cult of the Amateur.”

  • Fake It! is an illuminating primer not just why but how you can protect yourself and your personal data online. Highly recommended!

    Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Author of “Delete” and “Big Data.”

  • Fake It! is the cookbook for digital self-empowerment. A timely guide in a time where multi-billion US companies try to dictate technology and culture across borders. Pernille and Steffan provide a practical critique taking its strength from complementing long-term experience on location in San Francisco with a healthy European perspective.

    Matthias Weber, Digital Trendscout and owner of IT'S THE GLUE Transformation Design, Hamburg

  • Steffan Heuer and Pernille Tranberg provide a must-read treatise on how to protect and utilize the priceless asset of our personal data. Privacy isn't dead - it's just misunderstood and misrepresented. Fake It! offers numerous tips and tricks to help individuals fully understand the precious insights surrounding their digital identity.

    John C. Havens, author of ``Hacking Happiness,`` and the upcoming ``Genuine: Authentic Happiness in an Age of Artificial Intelligence.``

  • This book is a clear, concise and poignant survey of the digital landscape. Steffan Heuer and Pernille Tranberg succeed in covering all important aspects of digital life. Fake It should be on every book shelf.

    Ben Wagner, Director of the Centre for Internet & Human Rights at European University Viadrina

  • Two years after Snowden the debate about surveillance is more important than ever. As long as governments around the world are struggling to give us more control over our personal data, we have to take matters into our own hands. Fake It! is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the impact of a data driven economy on privacy. And even more important, it provides you with tricks and tools how you can fight back and regain control over your digital identity!

    Stefan Heumann, Program Director ``European Digital Agenda,`` stiftung neue verantwortung

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    The Authors

    Click headshots for more information

    Tools

    Click on a topic for details on how to defend your digital identity.

    Recent Writing

    Updates from the thick of the global surveillance economy.

    Blog Posts

    Welcome to Digital Self-Defense 2.0

    Hard to believe, but two and a half years have passed since the first edition of “Fake It!” came out in the fall of 2012. So much has happened, so much has changed and so much has come to light that we felt it was high time to completely redo and update our website. Digital Self-Defense, […]

    The privacy debate post-Google verdict

    It’s been a momentous week with the European Court of Justice handing down a verdict that will have far-reaching consequences. Who controls what data lives online about us? Will it be companies that make billions from processing and controlling the data, or will it be citizens and consumers? Internet companies such as Google decry the […]

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