"The Private Eye" published in 2013, is an excellent science fiction comic written by Brian K Vaughn, known for his work on Y: The Last Man. At the time of publication, it used the innovative no-digital rights management "pay what you want" policy pioneered by Radiohead on their mesmerizing 2007 album "In Rainbows."

The premise of the story is intriguing, especially for the bitcoin cypherpunk crowd. Approximately 60 years prior to the beginning, an earth shattering event happened: the cloud burst. As the main character, known only to us as Patrick Immelman, or P.I. (as he is a private investigator), describes it:

"Every message you thought was safe, every photo you thought you deleted, every mortifying little search you ever made... it was all there for anyone to use against you. People lost their jobs, families were torn apart."

Because of this flood of personal data and communications into the public sphere, society has pivoted to the opposite end of the information spectrum and embraced extreme privacy. There is no more internet or social media. Smartphones, tablets and computers are all things of the past, and electronic communication has fully ceased. Learning and research is done through books, and library records are fully sealed and inaccessible to the public. The police are now called The Press; police departments are referred to as The Fourth Estate, and the feds are Citizen National News (CNN), broadcasting to everyone's "teevee" in their home. As a private investigator, P.I. is considered a member of the paparazzi, an illegal profession.

Perhaps the most shocking societal transformation is that nobody goes outside their home as their plain self anymore; everyone wears masks and head-to-toe outfits, known as "nyms," in public. People routinely discard nyms and adopt new ones. Identity is transient. Nothing asks for or requires ID anymore, not even your job or purchasing a home. It is very difficult to find out anything about anyone.

We meet P.I. as he is helping a client track down his old high school sweetheart, who had disappeared into the fog of society behind a nym. As P.I. is taking long-distance photographs of her at home undressing from her nym outfit, he is confronted by the Press and forced to flee into the dark Los Angeles night. Returning to his dingy solo detective's office, he is greeted by a young lady by the name of Taj McGill, in a manner reminiscent of the 1940s classic "The Maltese Falcon." Referred by her sister Raveena, Taj gives him a simple task: find out as much about herself as is possible in this privacy-conscious world. It appears she's experimented with many different nyms over the years, joining a number of clubs and groups exploring taboo ideas. And, in the process, gotten herself mixed up with the wrong crowd.

At the start, P.I. isn't eager to take the case, but matters change when Taj is murdered. Raveena comes to P.I. seeking answers, and together they start a hunt to find out what kind of trouble Taj had gotten herself into. Pursued by a pair of gun-toting hitmen determined to stop them, P.I. and Raveena criss-cross LA, from Schwarzennegar General Hospital to the abandoned ghost town of Santa Monica, all in an attempt to unravel a conspiracy about the secrecy this entire world is built on.

What makes this series so clever is how all this masking and anonymity hinders their investigation. How do you find out who is behind a murder, when masks and nyms are used and discarded so casually, and when what little information is collected cannot even be accessed? As I got deeper into the story, I actually began to sympathize with the villain, and the revolutionary cause he was pushing.

What's also enjoyable is how technologically averse society has become. When P.I. needs help using a smartphone or iPad, he seeks the assistance of his grandfather, the last generation with any significant experience using consumer electronics.

I can strongly recommend "The Private Eye" to anyone into digital privacy, and interested in exploring how furthering these principles could change our society and behavior. It's a quick read, about ten chapters, and can be completed in about 3 hours at a casual pace. Stay in your lane.