- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Icon Books Ltd (1 May 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1840468777
- ISBN-13: 978-1840468779
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.5 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 434,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Your car is satellite-tracked, your features auto-identified on video, your e-mails, faxes and phone calls monitored. You are covertly followed via transmitters implanted in your clothes, via your switched-off mobile and your credit card transactions. Your character, needs and interests are profiled by surveillance of every website you visit, every newsgroup you scan, every purchase you make. Big Brother is here, quietly adding to your files in the name of government efficiency and the fight against organised crime and terrorism.As Keith Laidler argues in this urgent, important book, the potential for abuse is far-reaching and formidable. Surveillance can indeed fight crime. But, he asks, at what price? If we want zero crime, can we accept its price of zero freedom? Is the deployment of such technologies even legal? What will be their effects on the fabric of society? And what can we do to prevent the worst excesses?This book has the answers.
About the Author
Dr Keith Laidler has a background in anthropology, and is also an acclaimed cameraman and producer of wildlife documentaries. He writes regularly for the Guardian, the Independent and New Scientist, and his many other books include The Talking Ape (Collins), The Divine Deception (Hodder Headline), and Female Caligula (Wiley). He divides his time between a farm in the Pennines and a home in Portugal.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am involved in the privacy sphere and only found the book because it quotes me. Despite this there were pieces in there that I was unaware of. It is a nice guide to the ways in which we are spied upon throughout our everyday life.
There is an argument that if you are innocent you do not need to worry about being spied upon because it will not be used against you. Despite this I do find the idea that I can be observed naked in my bedroom mildly disturbing. To read the intrusions going on in this country and how even our mobile conversations and text messages are being run past the American security services was a sobering experience.
After buying and reading the book I was talking to someone at work who wanted to know the kinds of things Google can use as data. I wrote him an overview. When he wondered what else there was available out there as data that could potentially be given over to commercial use I bought him a copy of this book.
Knowledge is power when you are in business and it is interesting that the US legislation allows the surveillance of UK phones to be used to provide advantage to US companies. It is so interesting that European law is being mooted to deal with the information disadvantage. All of this is covered in the book with citations so that one can verify it against the references.
If you want a through overview of how Britain is one of the most watched nations in the world and what new technologies could do, then this book is for you. If you want to sleep coundly and if you accept that not everyone in government is always 100% benign, competent and strictly observes the rules, then you are probably better not reading this book as it could prove unsettling.
This despite the fact that the author is very carefully non-partisan. That is to say the author does not make any moral judgements, nor speculate about how the technologies he is describing will be used. He keeps the whole thing as unbiassed and objective as it can be (which is more objective than I would expect from a book on this subject). Keith Laidler is to be admired for his objectivity as much as for the excellent book content.
There is an argument that if you are innocent you do not need to worry about being spied upon because it will not be used against you. Despite this I do find the idea that I can be observed naked in my bedroom mildly disturbing. To read the intrusions going on in this country and how even our mobile conversations and text messages are being run past the American security services was a sobering experience.
After buying and reading the book I was talking to someone at work who wanted to know the kinds of things Google can use as data. I wrote him an overview. When he wondered what else there was available out there as data that could potentially be given over to commercial use I bought him a copy of this book.
Knowledge is power when you are in business and it is interesting that the US legislation allows the surveillance of UK phones to be used to provide advantage to US companies. It is so interesting that European law is being mooted to deal with the information disadvantage. All of this is covered in the book with citations so that one can verify it against the references.
If you want a through overview of how Britain is one of the most watched nations in the world and what new technologies could do, then this book is for you. If you want to sleep coundly and if you accept that not everyone in government is always 100% benign, competent and strictly observes the rules, then you are probably better not reading this book as it could prove unsettling.
This despite the fact that the author is very carefully non-partisan. That is to say the author does not make any moral judgements, nor speculate about how the technologies he is describing will be used. He keeps the whole thing as unbiassed and objective as it can be (which is more objective than I would expect from a book on this subject). Keith Laidler is to be admired for his objectivity as much as for the excellent book content.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Survelliance State will shock many people. We do not know just how much we are observed. We seem to accept CCTV as a crime prevention measure as opposed to real policemen. Moreover our telephone and emails can be listened to or read without much trouble. We should be more vigilant of our privacy
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book should be required reading for both critics of Government security policy, and those who say we have nothing to fear from greater surveillance and control.
The idea that more and more CCTV, ID cards and biometric databases will keep us safe from crime and terrorism is exposed as a fraud, and some possible future scenarios are laid out for us to ponder.
The author argues that total security equals total surveillance and asks, quite sensibly, if this is a price we are collectively prepared to pay.
The book finishes on an optimistic note by suggesting ways to resist the developing database and surveillance State.
The idea that more and more CCTV, ID cards and biometric databases will keep us safe from crime and terrorism is exposed as a fraud, and some possible future scenarios are laid out for us to ponder.
The author argues that total security equals total surveillance and asks, quite sensibly, if this is a price we are collectively prepared to pay.
The book finishes on an optimistic note by suggesting ways to resist the developing database and surveillance State.
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