The title of Richard Hunter's book refers to the growing availability of information about the personal lives of consumers living in capitalist democratic states. The book begins with the assumption that "very little of consequence can't and won't be known about anyone or anything". Hunter approaches the subject of the erosion of personal privacy from two angles: the business and the governmental/police justifications for retaining information on individuals. His argument, that citizens in democratic countries had better take responsibility for the power of surveillance technologies while they still can, emerges from the discussion of the increasing possibilities for deriving behaviour patterns from recombining archived data.
Hunter's first point, that people adapt at a slower rate than the
introduction of new technologies, is underlined using examples of
Amazon.com and Acme-Rent-A-Car of Connecticut. Neither set of
consumers, when they began relationships with either company, realised that information collected about their shopping habits and movements would be sold to third parties or used for law enforcement purposes.
Hunter then goes on to demonstrate how organisations that create and retail information, such as Microsoft and record companies, are responding to threats being posed by self-organising groups using the Internet to communicate. Hunter calls these groups 'Network Armies' and provides an analysis of how such groups coalesce and fight their cause, using examples of the Open Source software movement and Linux vs. Windows, Napster and digital distribution of music and the anti-capitalist protestors in Seattle and Genoa.
The discussion then moves on to identifying social groups within the 'world without secrets'. Hunter and a team of researchers at Gartner identify four groups: 'Network Armies', the 'Lost and the Lonely', 'Conscientious Objectors' and the 'Engineered Society'. This analysis implies that the world without secrets is inevitable and the area of society to which you belong depends upon whether you support or oppose the authority of the leadership that passes legislation to eliminate barriers to information flow.
The last two chapters are dedicated to discussion of war when all
enemy movements are known; and the possibility of a war in cyberspace.
Parts of this book were written on or after September 11th 2001 and Hunter considers the development of terrorist network armies and the response that an 'engineered society' can make to such attacks. The New York Electronic Crimes Task Force is used as a model network army for terrorist threats from cyberspace, an Internet version of Interpol with intercontinental crime-fighting agreements.
Richard Hunter believes that a world without secrets is inevitable.
He urges his readers to take responsibility for the ways that
technologies are implemented through democratic means, such as
building in limitations for information usage by the authorities.
This book makes a compelling argument for educating both the
authorities and the public about the type and uses of recorded
information and is an excellent introduction to contemporary
attitudes towards and policies of surveillance. Readers who are
interested in the freedoms that they enjoy in their societies should read this along with Simson Garfinkel's 'Database Nation' and Michael Caloyannides 'Desktop Witness' and be careful about to whom they give their personal information.
It could be that I'm a "shallow Hal" but I have to agree with the other review on the point the author raised in connection with Herbert's "Dune".
As we gather more information and as Sandisk (or someone like them) begins to offer terabyte storage to the everyday consumer, we will see more tracking.......and I fear, that in conjunction with XML, ......knowledge will increase.
Read the later part of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament to see what I am referring to. Next, go to the Maxwell Air Force base website and look up their link page to critical thinking. Take a while to learn some things about critical thinking and then read this section in Daniel and this book by Hunter.
Most importantly.......THINK FOR YOURSELF AND DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
McNealy is right. The frogs are already in the pot (loss of privacy) and most will never notice that they are being boiled until it's too late.
Hunter has done us a favor by raising this issue in the manner that he did.
Interestingly, the article and the book cover lots of privacy issues concerning Amazon.com. Issues that everyone who buys a product on Amazon (or anywhere online) should be aware: especially the policies of sharing information about customers with companies that want to sell goods and services to us (junkmail!) Of course, other companies are discussed, which, in the end just frightens us even more about the amount of information about each of us that is so readily accessible to anyone who wants it.
The NY Times reviewer states: "Mr. Hunter is right to argue that if Americans aren't involved in resolving these (privacy) issues, the issues will be resolved without them." Hunter says:"The amount of electronically stored data about individuals is massive, detailed, and growing. We don't yet know how to manage a world in which everything can be linked to me, wherever I am."
With his background as a top security expert, Hunters words will shake up any beliefs you may have left that ANYTHING is private anymore.