“FACEBOOK’S POWER IS TO SORT WHAT PEOPLE SEE AND TO SCREEN INFORMATION. THAT’S BASICALLY WHAT GOOGLE DOES, TOO”

“Terms of Service,” the first book from the young cultural critic Jacob Silverman, is less an argument than a tour. Its subject is the Internet—or, more accurately, what Silverman calls “the social web,” which could be loosely defined as either a) an Internet experienced tailored to YOU!, or b) a surveillance system that comes equipped with some nice photo-saving and message-sharing …