New Canadian Book Asks: Does This Record Need to Exist?

CALGARY, Alberta - Rezul -- Days before the September 28 release of Siding 29: How We Enclosed the Record of Human Life—and How We Can Build Differently, Canada's Privacy Commissioner opened an investigation into unauthorized access involving digital scans of driver's licences and other government-issued identification.

For Alberta author Lawrence Nault, the story illustrates the question at the centre of his new nonfiction book: privacy debates often begin after a record already exists.

"We spend enormous amounts of time asking who may use our data, how it should be protected and what happens when it is breached," Nault said. "But there is an earlier question: did this record need to exist in the first place?"

Siding 29 begins in Alberta's Bow Valley with the history of the hot springs at Cave and Basin and the railway siding that became Banff. Nault uses that history—while explicitly distinguishing the harms of land enclosure from information enclosure—to examine a recurring pattern: value created within relationships becomes separated from those relationships, enclosed and administered by someone else.

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From there, the book moves into ordinary digital life: phones, loyalty programs, connected vehicles, behavioural advertising, surveillance pricing, data brokers and artificial intelligence. Its focus is not simply on who holds data, but on why particular records are created, how long they persist and whether useful technologies could be designed to collect less.

"This is not an argument against technology," Nault said. "Innovation and maximum information extraction are not synonyms. Privacy can be a design requirement rather than something added after the system is built."

Siding 29 is written for a general audience and asks readers to look beyond individual apps, databases and devices to the larger record they collectively create from an ordinary human life.

Siding 29 will be released September 28, 2026 through major online booksellers.

More information:
https://lawrencenault.me/writing/nonfiction/siding29/siding29.html

About the Author
Lawrence Nault is a Canadian author whose work explores the intersections of technology, humanity and the future of the planet. He lives in Alberta.

Media Contact
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