Eyes & Spies: How You're Tracked and Why You Should Know

Gr 7 Up—This highly engaging and eye-opening selection examines the ways in which kids and teens are, and potentially could be, monitored and tracked at school and home, on the street, and online. Kyi successfully conveys the who, what, where, and why of data collection in a variety of situations and, more important, asks students to consider where the line between public and private should be drawn. While this can be a lot of information to take in during one sitting, this work should be required reading for middle and high schoolers. Sidebars routinely ask readers to ponder the benefits of surveillance and tracking from a security and a privacy perspective. The author quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who once stated that he wanted his company to "get right up to the creepy line and not cross it" when it comes to tracking its users, in order to set up "Creepy Line" sections that appear throughout and offer real-life stories through which readers can decide if that nebulous boundary has been crossed. Each section also includes a step that young people can take to increase their personal privacy. The graphic novel—like illustrations are eye-catching and effective in breaking up the dense facts and examples featured.