Author: Kieron O'Hara and Nigel Shadbolt
ISBN No: 978-1-85168-55
Review date: 08/12/2025
No of pages: 294
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
In our cars, telephones, even our coffee machines, tiny computers communicating wirelessly via the Internet can serve as miniature witnesses, forming powerful networks whose emergent behaviour can be very complex, intelligent, and invasive. The question is: how much of an infringement on privacy are they?
Two University of Southampton academics argue that we are entering a new state of global hyper-surveillance. Our electronic activity leaves behind digital footprints that can be used to track our movements. But they do not mindlessly grumble about infringement on privacy. Rather, they stress the human weaknesses – and the sometimes ‘quite extraordinary’ failures in security. Though the questions around CCTV, blogs and the internet, and RFID (radio frequency identification) are complex – and without easy answers – the authors cover much ground, always readably. As the book’s sub-title suggests, we do have to accept the privacy we could enjoy in the pre-digital age is over. Not only security manager masters students but that vague creature, the ‘general reader’ will learn from this book – as so much surveillance technology is in place for sound reasons, against crime, and not only for security, but efficiency in the supply chain and retail for instance.
