Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watching you, watching us., 1 Sep 2008
Today, we are at our most vulnerable; ever! Surveillance cameras are everywhere watching, and in most cases recording our every move. We are filmed taking our money from the ATM, walking into and walking out of the supermarket as well as inside it; in the street, and if you log on to Virtual Earth, there in the back garden cutting the lawn. But this 'Big Brother' surveillance can also be used to either incriminate or provide the perfect allibi with not only the movie, but the time-coding on till receipts. And whilst we may not actually tell our Bank Manager we're going, he will soon be aware we are in Phuket, Thailand, on holiday as soon as we need some more spending money and use the ATM there to get it.
Yes, our world is no longer private, and unless you're Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons or Hulk Hogan and make a TV series, and a fortune out of life behind closed doors, they're going to be watching us watching ourselves in some ridiculous TV programme we didn't even volunteer for before too long with matchstick-sized cameras installed, clandestinely, in our own home.
The above and oh so much more are studied and commented upon within these pages, which, those of the faint-hearted nature may not enjoy, whilst everyone but everyone will sit up and think about every move they make wherever they happen to go.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sentiment and Execution, 2 April 2008
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.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Privacy and Secrecy? No, we're letting it ebb away., 16 Mar 2007
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.
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