- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Collins & Brown; 1st Printing edition (20 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843402920
- ISBN-13: 978-1843402923
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 212,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In this present age of sophisticated technology, governments and their agencies have the capabilities to track citizens not only on the street (CCTV surveillance equipment is everywhere) but also in the 'privacy' of our homes (we leave a footprint whenever we use the Internet). Governments maintain this level of interference is for our own safety but many worry that the meance of 'Big Brother' as depicted by George Orwell is fast becoming reality. This book analyses the fragmentation of civil liberties in the 'Free West.' Today, US and British Governments allow imprisonment without trial and chip away at basic freedoms like trial by jury, the right to remain silent and the right to be judged solely on the evidence. The state is tightening its grip on us by watching and recording what we do because they know they can get away with it and because knowledge is power. The book is split into 11 chapters. Among the key topics covered are the prevalence of CCTV - if you work in London or any other major city in the UK you will be filmed by the State at least 300 times every day - the myriad state intelligence gathering agencies (the US alone has 41 registered), the credit rating agencies and their record of all your financial transactions, and satellite surveillance.
About the Author
A journalist and author who specialises in crime, military defence and vice, John Gibb worked for the Evening Standard for four years as a crime writer and has contributed regularly to the Spectator, the Sunday Telegraph and The Observer. He has written extensively about the London underworld and once had himself smuggled in a speedboat into the European Union with twelve illegal Albanian refugees. He has written books on police corruption, race fixing and the destruction of the English countryside. He lives in Penton Mewsey, Hampshire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Privacy and Secrecy? No, we're letting it ebb away.,
By
This review is from: Who's Watching You?: The Chilling Truth About the State, Surveillance and Personal Freedom (Conspiracy Books) (Paperback)
Bacon's maxim "Scientia potentia est" ("knowledge is power") is being taken forward new limits through the increasing use of technology by both commerce and governments. Ever more data is collected as we leave our electronic footprints (or real footprints, for CCTV) everywhere we go, but what makes this collection even more powerful today is the ability to connect databases together and mine (or slice and dice) that data to create a detailed profile on each and every each person. What could have been full of the rants of paranoia and conspiracy, John Gibb's readable, and at times worrying, book gives not just a comprehensive overview of what is happening today with the collection of all types of data about individuals as they shop, email, talk, call, web surf or just walk around the city, but goes into detail with some good examples of the way that information may be used... and mis-used.
The early chapters look at how commerce collects and collates data on us. Significantly, John Gibb describes how that data is shared and sold to the large data aggregators, which probably know us better than we know ourselves. Gibb points out that what is missing from this "information market" is the law and regulation that will protect people from misuse, inaccuracy or intrusion into our daily lives. The later chapters talk about how governments are collecting data on us; again, the power is being derived through bringing together all the individual sources of information that are currently kept on paper or at least in individual departments (such as our medical and school records) and storing them in one huge database that is available to a vast number of users within government and their agencies. ID cards are the visible front to this database. Although government will be putting laws in place to protect our information from unauthorised access, Gibb points out the the attraction of getting to our data, so conveniently in a single place, will be too great for some, especially if, as is probable, the chance of getting caught is small... or authrised by an all powerful executive. Gibb spends some time discussing the intelligence services, especially their insatiable demands for information on everyone in order to protect us; many of those demands are met without question following 9/11, and if our data is amassed centrally, then it will be available to those services and others "in the national interest", although who controls that access and who regulates and oversees it is a huge, open question. Even a slight level of paranoia will elevate the readers concern to new heights. Overall, Gibb presents us with what is happening with our personal information that is being collected in ever-increasing volumes. He stresses that the opportunity for that information to be used irresponsibly and to allow intrusion into our lives should concern everyone; however, what is happening is that we're allowing politicians and business to amass this data without demanding the proper safeguards. Gibb gives examples of how the vulnerable especially are open to exploitation. "Knowledge is power, but it also requires responsibility" writes Gibb. Read this book and you too will be looking at how your own information is being used and why you should start demanding safeguards.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sentiment and Execution,
By Midoil (Kirkcaldy, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Who's Watching You?: The Chilling Truth About the State, Surveillance and Personal Freedom (Conspiracy Books) (Paperback)
Sentiment and execution are where this book goes very right and somewhat awry.
As to Sentiment, Gibb catalogues many of the major civil liberties issues threatening British society. Given that the threats to practical, civic freedoms, such as freedom of speech, liberty, movement and expression are so varied, it is remarkable that he is able to retain focus, albeit to the detriment of detail. Gibb writes with a fitting sense of urgency, without a trace of hysteria. His style wins the reader quite easily. As to Execution, while the title is clearly intended for a popular audience, more quotes would have served the reader better, allowing him or her to follow up references. The title and cover suggest a less reasoned approach than the text in fact adheres to. Conspiracy theory nonsense this is not. "Who's watching you?" has no real need to engage in fantasies when the acknowledged facts extant in the public domain about our despotic little country are so pregnant with foreboding.
1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Junk,
By
This review is from: Who's Watching You?: The Chilling Truth About the State, Surveillance and Personal Freedom (Conspiracy Books) (Paperback)
Conspiracy theory junk - would not advise to buy unless you want to look like steven hawkings interesting brother.
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