This is a pretty chilling extrapolation of what might happen if the geek inherited the Earth: the overpowering tyranny of a single mindset with the grunt of a global tech company (a lot like Google) behind it, that decides privacy and secrets are bad and full access to everyone's data is good. The descent into dystopia is presented through a series of reasoned arguments - who wouldn't want to protect children from child molesters - nicely balanced with the real-world implications of the suggested 'solutions' to such problems for the rest of us.

As a polemic against the potential excesses of digital entrepreneurs, it's a powerful piece of writing. The narrative strand with new employee Mae Holland being sucked into The Circle and coming to embody its insidious philosophy is less compelling, but still handled well.