Freedom to Think: Protecting a Fundamental Human Right in the Digital Age - Paperback

by Susie Alegre (Author)

"Compelling, powerful and necessary." --Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

The story of our most fundamental human right - and why it is in grave danger

Without a moment's pause, we share our most intimate thoughts with trillion-dollar tech companies.

Their algorithms categorize us and jump to troubling conclusions about who we are. They also shape our everyday thoughts, choices and actions - from who we date to whether we vote. But this is just the latest front in an age-old struggle.

Part history and part manifesto, Freedom to Think explores how the powerful have always sought to influence how we think and what we buy. Connecting the dots from Galileo to Alexa, human rights lawyer Susie Alegre charts the history and fragility of our most important human right: freedom of thought.

Filled with shocking case-studies across politics, criminal justice, and everyday life, this ground-breaking book shows how our mental freedom is under threat like never before. Bold and radical, Alegre argues that only by recasting our human rights for the digital age can we safeguard our future.

Author Biography

Susie Alegre is a leading human rights barrister at the internationally renowned Doughty Street Chambers. She has been a legal pioneer in digital human rights, in particular the impact of artificial intelligence on the human rights of freedom of thought and opinion. She is also Senior Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton.