Author Asks: Who Appointed Google or Apple or Facebook or Microsoft to be our Government?

BOSTON, Oct. 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Wes Kussmaul, author of Escape The Plantation, wants to know how it happened that the world where we spend more and more of our lives is governed by commercial enterprises with no accountability except to their stockholders.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151006/274531

"The days when a computer was just a device are long gone," says Kussmaul. "Today we live half our lives in a space defined by our computers, tablets, phones, plus the apps and sites and networks that serve them. That space has become our second home, our information home," notes the author.

"If we live half our lives in a new space, then who governs that space, and how do we participate in that governance?" asks Kussmaul.

"When the government of our physical space does things we don't like, we have a right and a means to change things," notes the author. "But if we don't like the way Facebook or Microsoft or Google or WPP breaks into our information home and helps themselves to our personal information, it's not as though we're invited to join their board of directors to change things.

"The standard answer is that as customers we can vote with our feet, that is, use computers and services from vendors who respect our privacy. Escape The Plantation shows how we can have that choice. "Governance by building codes and professional accountability of architects and contractors ensures that our homes are built without secret passageways that we have no control of. Using the same principles, online occupancy permits can offer the same protection for our information homes," says the author.

In Escape The Plantation, the author proposes a system of participatory governance that will not only prevent the unwarranted collection and selling of our personal information, but will solve other problems as well. "Not only can we have real privacy, but real security as well. As problems of breaches, identity theft and malware continue to worsen, and as the information security industry keeps assuring us 'we're working on it,' people grow ever more wary of their use of phone and computer networks even as they come to depend upon them more and more.

"Governance based upon the principle of 'accountable anonymity' will change all that," says the author. In Escape The Plantation, the author introduces the reader to the City of Osmio, a municipality that was founded in Geneva in 2005 to provide participatory governance of the online spaces we inhabit.

As the founder of Delphi Internet Services Corporation, which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News America Corp., Wes Kussmaul has been conceiving and creating secure online spaces since 1981.

Escape The Plantation, 387 pages, ISBN 978-1-931248-23-5, published by PKI Press, is available in ebook and print form for $24.95 from PKI Press at https://pkipress.com and from other booksellers. Review copies available.

PKI Press serves readers interested in issues of identity, authentication, privacy, and online community.

Contact: Harvey Wharfield, Post Oak Associates
(978) 635-9586 | Email

SOURCE PKI Press