Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 304 pages
- Published by: Wiley
- Edition: 1st Edition April 12, 2002
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0471218162
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471218166
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Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
The warning bell about our rapidly disappearing privacy is sounded again albeit none too stridently in this study of new technologies and their impact. Hunter, a vice-president at Gartner's Research organization, a business technology consulting group, wants to sketch out how the omnipresence of computers affects every last centimeter of modern human existence. His first chapter, "Why will not They Leave Me Alone?" is most to the point, asking, on the subject of Internet commerce, "Is the convenience of being known everywhere worth the risk of being known everywhere?" More worrisome than having a digital signature follow you everywhere online he uses the example of Amazon.com's ability to remember things you've bought or even just looked at is the ubiquity of surveillance in public and private spaces. One chapter addresses the tracking of cars, relating the story of a man who was fined $450 for driving his rental car over the speed limit. It wasn't the police that caught him it was a global positioning satellite system in the car. From there, Hunter assays such subjects as the Open Source debate (over making the source codes of commercial operating systems and applications available to the public) and Internet crime. While each of the chapters is useful by itself, Hunter's thesis gets progressively fainter as the book goes on. Very little is resolved by the end of this less-than-groundbreaking study, but it may still be interesting for those new to the subject. (May)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Search for any book at Amazon.com and you will see a list of books that "customers who bought this book also bought." The technology that delivers this information is called data mining and it gives Amazon.com a competitive edge. It's part of an increasingly common phenomenon whereby literally everything we do is being watched and recorded to the point where anyone can find out anything about anybody. Hunter, director of security research at Gartner G2, poses the question, Is a "world without secrets" more scary than before and when is it all too much? In our desire for convenience, we voluntarily give away much of our privacy. Our credit cards, smart cars, and smart homes constantly spew out information about our actions. Cameras and facial recognition
software were used recently at the Superbowl. Hunter points out that the ability to mine data gives power to those who own the data. When the government owns our data, Big Brother becomes a reality--"a complex, demanding and dangerous place, but not Hell."
David SiegfriedCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader ReviewsIt's ironic that I just finished reading a book about customer relationship management CRM) in which all of the elements are needed in order to implement and effectively use CRM are the same elements that this book exposes are threats to us as individuals. This book is chilling for a number of reasons, but the top ones (in my opinion) are: (1) As an IT professional I am involved in CRM (customer relationship management), which has a goal of knowing your customer and providing individualized service - this requires knowing your customers and collecting data. After reading this book I had to step back and think about the impact on privacy and customer rights. This is a Catch-22 situation wherein providing high levels of service requires a great deal of data, but the same data eats away at privacy. (2) The array of technologies to gather information, including those that have migrated from the intelligence community into business and/or law enforcement, further chip away at privacy. This is exacerbated by laws passed and national attitudes since September 11. Privacy and freedoms are interrelated, so these technologies, combined with laws and attitudes pose a threat to our freedom as well. (3) Attitudes, business imperatives and social evolution are merging to change the entire social fabric of our way of life - and we are active participants in some aspects, and in other aspects we are facilitating this change. The ways we are doing that is through willingness to accept changes that are detrimental to privacy, and/or the pursuit of meeting business imperatives and competitive advantage without fully examining the long term ramifications. What I like is the way the author thoroughly and systematically addresses the threats to our privacy, freedom and well being. The discussion in "Rise of the Mentat", aside from catering to fans of Frank Herbert's sci fi masterpiece, Dune, will open your eyes about how information is processed and fed to us. After reading this chapter you'll wonder how much you really know, and how much of what you think you know is based on all available facts and data. However, the real eye-opener is the way that virtual communities are coming together in ways that could not have been predicted ten years ago. The Internet has enabled people of like interests, both benevolent and malevolent, to find one another on this planet, band together and begin exerting influence. In the same manner that maps drawn with political borders do not display cultural borders, these groups called "Network Armies" in the book go beyond cultural or national interests and are changing our social fabric in ways that the author only touches upon. This book is well written, filled with examples and facts, and arrives at thought-provoking conclusions. It does not matter if you work in IT or another technology-focused industry, law, business or non-profit organizations, what this book has to say and the facts and conclusions that are presented are important. If the author is correct (and I think he is), our lives are changing in dramatic ways and this book is a rough roadmap to where we're headed.
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