Amazon.co.uk Review
If you use a computer and you surf the Web, the Internet's open architecture has made you visible to the world. So claims
The Hundredth Window, Charles Jennings and Lori Fena's exposé on Internet security--or the lack thereof. Regardless of how you feel about privacy, though, this book can help you understand the risks of Internet use, plus some precautions you can take to minimise them.
The proverbial hundredth window represents the most vulnerable link in a system. It derives from an allegory relating windows in a castle to security--if only one out of a hundred windows is left open, security becomes compromised. Since the Internet maximises information sharing, admittedly largely a beneficial enterprise, would-be avid marketers and the inevitable shadier characters can, without trying all that hard, spy on your Web clicking habits, read your e-mail, and even see files on your hard drive. This means you may receive spam from marketers who think they know what kind of stuff you like to buy--helpful to some and aggravating to others. It also means, ominously, that your name and other identifying information about you can cause you problems. Individuals can even use personal information about you to commit fraud or other crimes, for which you would then be responsible.
Now, it's unlikely you'd undergo the sort of nightmare invasion on your privacy that occurred in Enemy of the State, but the exchange of personal information about Internet users is undeniably a multibillion dollar business. It's the increasingly fervent desire of marketing executives the world over to know intimate details about you so that they can help you shop. Maybe this is no skin off your nose, but you may become frustrated if you happen to have a parent or grandparent with a serious illness, for example, you spend time researching the illness on the Web, and your name falls into the hands of insurers as a potential high risk. There are incalculable extrapolations on this scenario that you may want to protect yourself from, and this book can get you started on that road.
Jennings and Fena, both experts on this topic, have compiled a series of easy steps to help you minimise your visibility in cyberspace. Their approach isn't terribly sophisticated--they suggest you clear out your cookies and use fake information when registering on Web sites, for example--but it's effective. They also offer several quite handy techniques that erase your Web footprints, such as leaving your AOL member profile blank and using blocking software.
The topic of Internet security can sometimes get relegated to the land of the paranoid, but in this case the advice is sensible and the solutions practical. --Teri Kieffer, Amazon.com
Review
A well-meaning but ultimately sketchy study that tackles the problem of maintaining privacy in the ever-developing world of the Internet. The title refers to the theory that, even if you have bars and locks on 99 of your 100 windows, only one left open and unguarded will put you at risk. The authors, cofounders of the Internet watchdog group TRUSTe, paint a scary portrait. Individuals are being monitored electronically every minute of the day, they claim, via e-mail, chat groups, cellular telephones, and illicit spy-cams that feed unauthorized video onto the Net. The Internet has evolved from a noncommercial arena into one that is largely driven by e-commerce, and this has led to the growing importance of data collection on individualsknown as PII (personally identifiable information)in order to capture tastes, values, and behavior of consumers. Anyone can click onto a website and thus unwittingly become an identifiable piece of datato be passed around and used by companies, the government, or individuals. While PII collection has enabled e-commerce to offer helpful customized goods and services, the relatively easy access to personal information can lead to harassment, identity theft, online fraud, racial profiling, and other dangers. Because of modern computing systems flaws and the rapid development of the Internet, the authors admit that it is hard to offer solutions to the privacy issue. They do offer some useful tips and tricks (such as suggesting that you create an online identity that is separate from your e-mail address and do not reply directly to spammers), and there is a chapter that ranks the ten companies with the best privacy sites. Articles in the appendix show how Big Brother is indeed watching over us. A warning and a foreshadowing of what will ultimately be a major issue in the years to come within the electronic world. (Kirkus Reviews)
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